Strings of lights are out but a live tree is in for the Limestone County Courthouse this holiday season.

Limestone County Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough told commissioners during a work session this week there will be no strings of lights strung on the historic courthouse in Athens.

He said officials decided the clips used to hand the lights may cause the new gutters on the recently renovated courthouse to corrode, which would create a maintenance problem. Lights will be strung on the shrubs and trees around the courthouse, however.

And since the courthouse has its own colored light system, those lights will be used to bathe the edifice in green and red during the Christmas holiday.

Though this may be a downer for some, the county does plan to renew its quest to plant a live evergreen tree on the courthouse lawn, which should grow into a large specimen in the coming years.

District 3 Commissioner Jason Black had planned last November to have a larger, live Christmas tree — a Fuja Green Giant — uprooted from its home in District 3 and moved to the courthouse lawn. However, the drought prevented excavators from digging into the dry earth and lack of water had left the Fuja looking a little too sick for transplanting.

Black confirmed Wednesday he would obtain some kind of conical green tree for transplanting this year.