REVISIT 2016 TREE IN ALL ITS GLORY

Rockefeller Center

Returns To Oneonta

For Christmas Tree

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – It could be the biggest secret in Greater Oneonta – perhaps 100 feet tall.

Crews from Lynn Warren Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping in Newburgh have been at the 3851 State Highway 23 property since Monday, prepping the tree owned by “Daddy Al” Dick.

In much the same way, crews prepped Angie and Graig Eichler’s 94-foot tall spruce before sending it to be the 2016 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

In an interview, Graig Eichler said there’s a good reason it’s so hush-hush:  “It’s to protect the tree, and to protect the family so there’ s no trespassing or vandalism to the tree.”  Rockefeller Center provided 24-hour security was the tree’s been chosen and certainly after it’s announced.

Trooper Aga Dembinska, Troop C public relations officer, would “neither confirm nor deny” that the tree was headed to New York City.  And Sandy Moore, manager of Daddy Al’s, said that Al was “not allowed to talk about it.”

Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig said he’s been receiving calls since news about the tree was posted on local social media Monday, Nov. 2.  Town Supervisor Bob Wood, whose office is a few hundred yards down the road, says he hasn’t heard a word.

The Eichlers’ tree, from their property on Country Club Road, about a half-mile from the Dicks, was a similar secret, officially revealed in a press conference as the tree came down.  The news broke on Oct. 31, 2016; the tree came down a few days later.

Graig Eichler said their tree was the second-largest in Rockefeller Center history.