Fort Recovery staff gets workout
by removing wreaths
By JANIE SOUTHARD
jsouthard@dailystandard.com
FORT RECOVERY — Paul Rohrer doesn’t need to worry
about shedding those extra holiday pounds. He spent most of
Friday climbing a ladder taking down the village Christmas wreaths,
which have brightened up Wayne Street and Van Trees Park for
several weeks.
“There are about two dozen lighted wreaths, and I’d
guess they weigh up to 35 pounds each,” Rohrer, a village
employee, told The Daily Standard at the village garage.
Friday’s warm weather was a real boon for Rohrer and Street
Supervisor Jerry Guggenbiller. Cold, wind and/or snow can make
this holiday take-down quite an ordeal.
“With good weather, and if we can both work at it, they
can be down and stored in a day and a half. But, that’s
also assuming nothing else needs our attention,” Guggenbiller
said.
This year Rohrer climbed up, unhinged the decorations, laid
them in the truck and brought them back to the garage where
Guggenbiller checked each one.
Positioning each wreath in the workbench vice, he plugged in
the wreath and tested each light.
“I’ll replace most of the smaller bulbs that don’t
work and all the big candle-type bulbs. Sometimes the problem
is the socket and, again, it’s the big candle that will
get replaced,” he said, adding the smaller sockets won’t
be immediately replaced until there are several not working.
Once Guggenbiller finishes, the wreaths are trucked back to
the storage warehouse where they are each affixed to the wall.
“Then next November we’ll begin the whole thing
again,” Guggenbiller said.
These aren’t the only Christmas streetlight decorations
being stored. In another area are the red and white lanterns
that adorned the village before the merchants’ association
purchased new decorations five years ago.
“We haven’t used those since we got the new ones.
They probably need some cleaning up and possibly rewiring. But
they are for sale,” Rohrer said, adding it might make
a good project for a Boy Scout troop.
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