Holiday wreaths in need of new home
A Montana Sky employee hefts a Christmas wreath up to a light pole on California Avenue on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (Derrick Perkins/The Western News)
A Montana Sky employee hooks a Christmas wreath up to a light pole on California Avenue on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (Derrick Perkins/The Western News)
Holiday wreaths line the light poles along California Avenue. (Derrick Perkins/The Western News)
Libby’s annual tradition of adorning city lamps with holiday wreaths has run into yet another logistical challenge.
Gail Burger of the Libby Area Business Association told city councilors Dec. 6 that the downtown store that once housed the several dozen wreaths no longer wants the holiday decorations. While the wreaths went up this year, a new home is needed, she warned.
“Montana Sky is going to put them up this year, but when they come down, they’re homeless,” Burger said.
The tradition of decking Libby with wreaths nearly ended in 2019 when city officials gave up on maintaining the decorations. The expense and labor that went into fixing up the city’s collection of wreaths led officials to abandon the undertaking.
At the time, then-City Manager Jim Hammons estimated the cost of repairing a wreath at several hundred dollars. Most had fallen into disrepair, he said.
That year, area residents decried the lack of festive decorations on Libby’s main drags. Former Mayor Brent Teske lamented the void during a December city council meeting.
“The wreaths were in such a state they weren’t even worth putting up this year,” he said in 2019.
Enter Mark Managhan of Managhan’s Furniture. The local entrepreneur offered to take the wreaths from the city and arrange for refurbishment. The wreaths eventually returned to their spot atop Libby’s lampposts.
Managhan’s turn as the white knight gave the tradition a temporary boost, but the new owners are uninterested in housing the decorations, Burger told city councilors this week. On top of that, the city never relinquished ownership of the decorations, she said.
“Now that they’re redone, they’re wonderful,” Burger said. “They’ll last another 10 years, but the current owners don’t want them stored there anymore and they didn’t know that they needed to go up [this year].”
Mayor Peggy Williams thanked Burger for bringing the situation back before Libby City Council.
“Thank you for taking care of those and getting them up, because they do make it look more festive,” she told Burger.
Still, Williams said she had not yet discussed possibilities of a future home for the wreaths or found a location.
Burger expressed confidence that City Hall could find a solution.
“I thought if we brought it up now, we’ve got plenty of time to figure it out,” she said.