Fredericton woman offering Christmas ornaments of ‘The Pole’

With the buzz of a chainsaw and a final crack, a now-famous New Brunswick landmark has fallen. The Fredericton Pole as it’s come to be known was removed on Friday, a week after capturing hearts and inspiring laughter across the city.

Local Fredericton crafter April Robinson is memorializing the local celebrity in the form of Christmas ornaments.

“The pole itself has taken on a life of its own and I just ran with that,” she said. “I was inspired by the joy the pole has brought to everybody.”

“The Pole” first caught the attention of the city last week when a social media post of a utility pole that had been left in the new Lincoln roundabout went viral.

The unusual circumstance spawned memes and even a tongue-in-cheek petition calling for the pole to be preserved.

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Robinson said it shows the close-knit type of community that Fredericton is, but after all the jokes everyone is a little sad to see it go.

“It’s a necessary evil. I mean, maybe this could have been an influx of tourism dollars for Fredericton,” she said, “but I think as a safety issue we all know, ‘The Pole’ has got to go.”

Steven Aitken lives just up the road from the Lincoln roundabout. He said he somewhat enjoyed the months of construction, which kept his street a little quieter than normal with the lack of traffic.

But Aitken said he’s still happy to see the work done, even if he found the hubbub around “The Pole” a little confusing.

“Well, we got to have some sort of amusement in our lives it seems,” he said.

Before the pole came down Friday afternoon, construction workers pulled off a piece of its reflective tape for Robinson that she’ll put to use towards the 85-and-growing list of orders for ornaments, part of the proceeds of which are going to the greatest pole lovers in the city.

“Who else loves a good pole? Cats love to scratch poles and dogs love to pee on poles, so I’m going to donate a portion of the proceeds to the SPCA,” she said.