Christmas lights park project gains momentum

The possibility of a Christmas lights in the park project moved another step toward reality Wednesday night.

The Park Board, while taking no official vote on the project, agreed to have board President Tim Trigg and board member Cathy Merrell work with Civic League representative Kate Knaul on continuing aspects of the project, such as determining how much the Parks Department staff can do within its limitations, establishing partnerships, securing volunteers and more.

The project at Robe-Ann Park, Knaul said, is seen “as a very collaborative effort from the Civic League point of view.”

A letter from Knaul detailing the project was read at the Park Board’s August meeting and she attended the September meeting to address any questions and concerns.

”By all accounts, there’s been a longstanding desire to have a holiday lights display in Greencastle,” her letter said. “We now find ourselves with various groups who are ready to make this happen.”

Those groups include the Civic League, Putnam County Convention and Visitor Bureau, Greencastle Arts Council and Putnam County Chamber of Commerce.

What has really gotten the ball rolling this year is that the Visitor Bureau was approached by a resident willing to donate equipment previously used for a major lights show in her Indianapolis neighborhood.

Her old display included music that was choreographed in sync with lights. That, however, is not likely to be a part of a 2020 lights show, Park Board members have said.

The proposal suggests the lights would be up from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

Knaul noted that volunteers are needed for such tasks as constructing props from PVC pipe to be covered in lights rather than pending a couple thousand dollars for such items. Other volunteers would be needed to wrap trees and structures with lights. One of the most important and tedious aspects will be going through each strand of lights, making sure they are in working order and replacing burned-out bulbs.

A bucket truck or trucks will be needed to help put up the lights. Knaul suggested that Duke Energy would be asked to help with that.

The full proposal is for equipment has been estimated at $25,000 with the Civic League suggesting that a reasonable goal would be to raise a third of that for this initial year.

Storage of the lights and decorations was one question that arose.

“I envisioned it being wonderful,” Park Board member Merrell said, “but then I wonder about storage. I know what it takes for all the stuff at our house. It is great to see this coming, we’ve been talking about it for years.”

Knaul said the Civic League has a storage unit and other locations would be possible.

Mayor Bill Dory asked, “Who will be responsible for paying the electric bill?”

“Quite frankly we were hoping it would be in your (the city’s) budget,” Knaul said, indicating that the LED lights don’t use that much electricity.

She said 50,000 LED lights being illuminated for five hours equates to about $1 per day.

“With 50,000 lights that seems a little low,” Mayor Dory said.

The mayor did not commit to using city funds on the lights, suggesting that revenues likely will be adversely impacted in the next couple years by lesser gasoline tax and lesser income taxes being available to the city due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on miles driven and hours worked.

At this point, Knaul said, “a lot of this project is learning as we go. By the end of next week we hope to have how many lights we need to purchase.”