Business trees light up downtown Newton

Newton Main Street continues its work to spruce up the town square during the long winter months.

A few years ago, when Newton Main Street was founded, the organization’s design committee began to encounter a problem. Rita Reinheimer, chair of the design committee, said Newton’s downtown looked drab and sad during the gray Midwestern winters.

To combat this in mid-2016, the committee began to explore several different options to tidy the streets around the square.

“During the winter of 2016 the committee tried to decorate the bunker boxes around the Newton town square several different ways, but those never lasted,” Reinheimer said. “Initially we had fall foliage decorations in the boxes, but truth be told it didn’t look very good. The next year we knew that we needed a new decorating plan.”

The answer to this decoration conundrum came in the form of trees. Christmas trees to be specific.

“Several committee members had been traveling around Iowa and noticed that some towns had temporarily planted evergreens in their boxes during the winter and decorated them to look like Christmas trees. When we started to plan for the winter of 2017 those members suggested that this could work for Newton as well,” Reinheimer said.

So the committee began securing the trees, decorations and – most important – sponsors for the upcoming holiday season.

And to be honest, it was easier than anyone would have expected.

“We got in contact with our current ‘tree guy’ Randy Ray during that time,” Reinheimer said. “He’s the one who transplants the trees in and out of the boxes every year and he always does a great job for us.”

After finding someone who could provide the trees, the committee needed to find some sponsors to help fund this new project. Those sponsors appeared in the form of Main Street’s biggest supporters, the businesses the organization already served.

“We put out a notice to all the businesses in town asking for sponsors and we received a huge wave of support,” Reinheimer said.

Around a dozen Newton businesses and organizations stepped up to help with the new project and the program has continued until this day.

This year, 12 uniquely decorated trees are scattered throughout Newton’s downtown.

“Each tree has a different theme, usually it has something to do with whichever business is sponsoring the tree,” Newton Main Street Executive Director Erin Yeager said. “I know that this is something that our members really love and look forward to every year. And it is just a really great way to add some flare to the area during the winter.”

RE/MAX, Clemon-Maki Insurance and The Farmers Wife are just a few of Newton Main Street members who stepped up this year to support the project.

All of the trees that are part of the project are planted in various bunker boxes around the Jasper County Courthouse. The trees will remain in the boxes and decorated throughout the holiday season.

Contact Abby Knipfel at 641-792-4687 ext. 6531 or aknipfel@shawmedia.com