There was a good chance White Center’s first community Christmas tree wouldn't have power in time to light up “The Triangle” for the holidays.

Located at the convergence of Delridge Way s.w., 16th Ave s.w. and s.w. Roxbury, The Triangle is a small, well ... triangle of green space that’s home to a flag pole flying Old Glory, a few trees, shrubs and flowers when the season allows and the “Baskets of Prosperity” signifying the multicultural community that is White Center.

One thing The Triangle didn’t have until Dec. 13 was power to light up the newly installed 25 foot Christmas tree.

On Dec. 13 a crew of three from Seattle City Light came out and rigged the pole with an electrical outlet, prompted by an email from White Center Chamber of Commerce president Mark Ufkes.

The story leading up to that email from Ufkes, however, goes back five years when Mac’s Triangle Pub owner Mac McElroy purchased the corner bar that faces the Triangle.

One of the first things McElroy said he noticed when he bought the pub was a tattered and worn American flag flying from the pole, a relic of the now defunct Glendale VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). As night fell, he noticed that there was no light to illuminate the flag, which is considered poor American flag etiquette.

McElroy didn’t take the flag’s condition lightly, being a Navy veteran of six tours in the Gulf War and coming from a long family history of service. Both of his grandfathers served in the Army during World War II, his father was an Army veteran of the Vietnam War and his daughter just graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and is now a Naval Officer stationed in San Diego.

“I’m very proud of my service and I’m proud of the fact that we have a World War II memorial right outside my door,” he said. “It’s because of those people that fought and died that we are able to have a multicultural symbol, the Baskets of Prosperity, out there.”

McElroy, who is a member of the White Center Chamber of Commerce and recently ran as an Independent for the 34th District House of Representatives seat, purchased a new flag out of his own pocket and started making phone calls and checking records to figure out how to get electricity to the pole.

“It was a major flurry of finger pointing,” McElroy said. It seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for the little triangle in White Center, from the Seattle Department of Transportation to Seattle City Light.

“Everybody and their brother said, ‘We don’t even know there is a pole out there’,” he added.

Bureaucracy threatened to make lighting the flag an impossibility.

Then earlier in December of 2010, a Buddhist family from White Center donated the 25-foot tree to the Chamber of Commerce (they said it would bring good karma to White Center) and Ufkes, also a Scoutmaster, decided his scouts should put the tree up in The Triangle. He spoke to McElroy and discovered the problem with the lights.

Shortly thereafter, McElroy was sitting in his pub with an electrical engineer friend talking about the problem and his friend decided to borrow a ladder, grab a volt meter and climb up to inspect the pole.

What he found was a cup that used to hold a light with raw, exposed wires sticking out. He checked the wires for power and, sure enough, they were live.

Ufkes said there were no records from SDOT or Seattle City Light indicating that power had ever been installed, making it seem like a “clandestine” operation.

“So once we determined we had power we had the ability to say, ‘We have a risk here,’ and that really unlocked the whole situation,” McElroy said.

Ufkes wrote his email to Seattle City Light.

“As soon as they got the email that said there is a live wire … they had a crew out (within an hour and a half) that said, ‘OK, we can make it safe but legally we’re kind of not responsible for this site,’” Ufkes said.

It turns out the pole was SDOT’s responsibility.

Ufkes asked the City Light crew if they could put in a safe fixture for the Christmas tree’s (and eventually the flag’s) sake. A few phone calls were made and a solution came to light.

Ufkes bought the necessary supplies with Chamber funds and the Seattle City Light crew installed a breaker to make the power safe and put in a fixture.

“They said, ‘Legally we are not responsible for this, but as a part of the community we are going to do our part,’” Ufkes said.

Earlier in the day on Dec. 15, lights and tinsel were strung around the tree and baskets. At 7 p.m. the switch was flipped and the lights came on. The small crowd gathered in front of Mac’s Triangle Pub began to cheer, cars driving by honked their horns and White Center got a little brighter just in time for the holiday.

Ufkes encourages anyone from the White Center community to put ornaments on the tree.

As for the flag pole, Ufkes intends to buy a bigger American flag using Chamber funds early next year and said he will be sending SDOT a letter asking that a waterproof light fixture be installed.