If you've driven down Municipal Road 55 between Copper Cliff and Lively outside of daylight hours recently, you may have noticed a large, lit-up star hanging from a huge crane.
Thanks to social media connections, we've managed to track down the people responsible for this larger-than-life holiday ornament.
The mechanical contractor Anmar fabricated the star, which is 30 feet in diameter, and hung it from a 300-foot-tall crane in the company's crane yard on Fielding Road.
The crane was specifically put together for this purpose. The star is secured with the help of guy-wires.
The first time the star went up was Christmas 2018, although there have been smaller stars put up over the holidays at the company's projects around the province and at its Mumford Road head office for many years.
“It's been a tradition for a long time,” said Darcy Bourdage, Anmar's crane superintendent.
“In the past, it was a smaller crane, so we had smaller stars. We used to have one up at Mumford Drive at the head office. It didn't stand out so much.”
Anmar is a family-run company owned by the Grossi family. The star is a symbol of family and Christmas, said Bourdage. It's a tradition that is particularly anticipated by the employees at Anmar.
“A couple weeks ago before we had it up, everybody and their brother asked me 'When are you putting that star up, by the way?'” he said.
“I don't get much feedback from the public, just the odd construction guy we run across. It seems like everybody likes it. Well, how could you not like it?”
