Downtown decorating could be poles apart from last year

Thursday, November 2, 2017
Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE The light pole in front of Completely Nuts and Candy Co. at Indiana and Walnut streets is a prototype for what is hoped will be a downtown Greencastle decoration project this holiday season.

The Halloween horde has passed. Thanksgiving’s just around the corner. But it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Greencastle.

Especially if you venture over to the corner of Indiana and Walnut streets where the light pole in front of Lynda Dunbar’s Completely Nuts and Candy Co. is all wrapped in holly, trimmed in LED lights and topped with a big red bow.

“People have been asking me, ‘Lynda, why are you all about Christmas already on your light post?’” Dunbar said. “And I tell them, ‘That’s a prototype, silly.’”

And that’s when those friends or visitors get excited, the Greencastle city clerk-treasurer reported.

“They say, ’Oh my gosh, do you really think we could decorate downtown for Christmas?’”

Dunbar doesn’t just think so, she’s making it a mission.

After all, nobody wants a repeat of last year when no person or local organization really took hold of any decorating project and the downtown ended up with little more than the former canopy of lights being draped over the side of the courthouse to the edge of the lawn in a sad acknowledgement of Christmas.

Of course, nobody wanted drill holes into the newly renovated facades of the buildings downtown to provide anchors for the canopy of lights and enable them to span the streets, so they did not.

Instead of doing that or anything like it again, the city and Main Street Greencastle are collaborating on a project determined to decorate the 50 light poles within the downtown, including those running east down Washington Street to City Hall, Dunbar said.

The cost will be approximately $200 per pole, the Greencastle clerk said, noting that “the city is willing to pitch in for maybe half or them” through some EDIT funds it has available.

That would leave 25 poles for businesses, local clubs and organizations as well as private citizens to adopt.

The donation doesn’t have to be the total $200 amount, Dunbar stressed. Any amount would be accepted. And by making a check out to Main Street Greencastle (and dropping it off at City Hall at Locust and Washington streets), it would be tax-deductible.

“I know a lot of people who would love to see us decorate downtown for Christmas,” Dunbar said.

The greenery and LED lights of the prototype are high-quality, she said, guaranteed to last 10 years or more. The bows are strong fabric sewn over wire that are also designed to be long lasting.

Installation also is not seen as a problem in this venture. City employees would be used to put the decorations up and take them down, the city clerk noted.

With the holidays fast approaching, Dunbar said the decorations need to be ordered soon, so anyone who like to help with the project is urged to contact her at City Hall at 848-1510.

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  • YEA!!!So glad Greencastle decided to get into the Christmas spirit. Thank you Linda and Main Street Greencastle for helping our town look as festive as others. We drive through towns like Danville, Crawfordsville, and Brazil during the holidays and they are decorated so nicely. You come back to Greencastle and there is only a few storefronts boasting the Christmas spirit. So glad that maybe this year when people drive through Greencastle they will know that we also have spirit.

    -- Posted by BITTLES & HURT on Fri, Nov 3, 2017, at 7:18 AM
  • Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I hated the way downtown Greencastle looked last year. Anything would be a great improvement!!

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Fri, Nov 3, 2017, at 11:10 AM
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