Volunteers sought for Christmas lights project

Christmas is fast approaching and the Iowa Park Christmas Lights Task Force Committee needs help refurbishing holiday decorations to be displayed throughout the community.

The committee is planning a work day Saturday October 4, beginning at 8 a.m. and ending around noon at the Tom Burnett Memorial Library to replace garland on some of the older decorations and ornaments.

Committee members are asking citizens to volunteer a few hours that morning to help with stripping garland and replacing it on approximately 30 Christmas decorations which hang on the utility poles throughout town.

The task force was organized last year to review current Christmas decorations and make recommendations to the city council for replacing or adding decorations.

The group suggested the old garland on the silhouettes be replaced, two new displays added at the library, and current lights be replaced with LED lights. The LED lights allow more strings of lights from one power source because they pull lower amperage, which also reduces the electric usage.

There were 532 strands of LED lights ordered this year, as well as hundreds of feet of garland and the two silhouettes.

However, due to limited funding the group recommended that the LED lights be used at the library, downtown, and the trees among the angel garden at Lake Gordon this year, with new strands bought each year until all lighting is replaced with LED.

The new displays at the library are a horse pulling a sleigh with a man in it and a sleigh with a small child being pulled by her sister.

They also hope to continue to add one or two large stand-up displays annually.
Anyone interested in helping with replacing the garland should be at the Tom Burnett Memorial Library at 8 a.m. with a pair of pliers and a pair of wire cutters.