Atascadero City Hall gets holiday decorations for the first time in 20 years

For the first time in more than two decades, Atascadero City Hall will be decked out for the holidays.

The historic building recently got a 10-foot mountain pine wreath, which Atascadero Fire and Emergency Services staff installed on Monday using a fire truck and ladder.

City Hall — constructed in the early 1900s as one of the former colony’s original landmarks — underwent significant renovations after it was damaged in the 2003 San Simeon earthquake. It reopened for city use in 2013.

This year, instead of lighting the deodar cedar trees in the Sunken Gardens, Atascadero will decorate City Hall and add two 12-foot artificial Monarch frame Christmas trees to the park, according to Terrie Banish, deputy city manager.

Due to safety concerns, one of the cedar trees was removed this year, which would’ve made the decorations appear asymmetrical, Banish said. In addition, repairing and replacing the trees’ lights took up an extensive amount of city workers’ time in the past.

“There has been keen interest in lighting up our beautiful, historic City Hall during this time of year,” Banish said in an email.

“So, we took a different approach by investing a small portion of our marketing budget into new holiday lights and décor this year, and plan to increase the number of lights in years to come, adding more to City Hall and including the new Centennial Bridge as well.”

The city will complete the decorations by Friday, when it will host Light up the Downtown near City Hall and the Sunken Gardens starting at 5 p.m.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Atascadero City Hall gets holiday decorations for the first time in 20 years."