'Hassle Free Christmas Tree' Program is Up and Running - WBOY.com: Clarksburg, Morgantown: News, Sports, Weather

'Hassle Free Christmas Tree' Program is Up and Running

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By Katie Anderson, General Assignment Reporter - email

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BRIDGEPORT -

Bridgeport's annual "Hassle Free Christmas Tree" program is up and running.

If you buy a "hassle free" tree, the city of Bridgeport will deliver a live Christmas tree to your door. Once Christmas is over, or the tree is no longer wanted, the city will pick it up and plant it in a park.

Tom Davis, who is one of the city's suppliers and owns the Tom Davis Garden Center, said the program has helped all around.

"It's a donation to the city and it helps our parks. I know a lot of elderly people do this because they don't know what to do with the tree. So they buy this, the city brings it to them, the city takes it out, and they're tickled with the program. It's good for everybody, I call it a win-win situation," Davis said.

The Tom Davis Garden Center has already sold out of its "Hassle Free" trees, but they are still available at the Mount Zion Nursery in Fairmont.

Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton said that even though the project is ran in Bridgeport, it originated in a different county.

"When the program first started in Marion County, they came down and said, 'We're delivering trees down to Clarksburg and Bridgeport, why don't you start it?' and we said, 'Ok, we'll steal your idea,' and we ran with it.  It really worked well for us," Burton said.

The trees that get planted in the park have signs that list the names of the donors and the year that they were planted.

Bridgeport has run the program for almost 10 years and has planted about 65 trees in local parks.