Holiday decorations light up discussion

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 5, 2000

By the time the snow flies – unless it’s this weekend – the city’s street department figures there will be 110 old-time light posts in the city: from the bridge on Main Street North to the bridge on Main Street South, on the blocks surrounding Main Street, on the East Side and on First Drive NW.

Thursday, October 05, 2000

By the time the snow flies – unless it’s this weekend – the city’s street department figures there will be 110 old-time light posts in the city: from the bridge on Main Street North to the bridge on Main Street South, on the blocks surrounding Main Street, on the East Side and on First Drive NW.

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The question haunting the city now is: What about the holiday season? Will some of those lamps be bare?

Christmas lights were a highlight of Wednesday’s Austin City Council’s finance committee meeting. Members of the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce’s 100 Club committee, plus Chamber Executive Director Sandy Forstner came to the meeting at the request of the city to discuss buying more Christmas decorations to go with the increased number of antique-style lamp posts in the city.

All in all, nearly $40,000 would be needed to get decorations on 55 new poles. The city proposed that the Chamber split those costs. Forstner was non-committal.

"We’re supportive of Christmas in the City and the decorations," the Chamber director said, "but we’re here today to learn more, not make any commitments.

In the past, the Chamber has paid half the costs of new decorations, with the city paying up front and the Chamber paying the city back over time. The Chamber is due to finish paying for the last purchase in 2005.

"We don’t want to be still paying this off when we’re 77 years old," Chamber board member David Bumgarner said.

Board member Kenneth Howe said the Chamber board would want to know a lot more details about where the decorations would go and their cost before it could make any decision. He added that he thought banners on Oakland Avenue should come before any lighted decorations made their way down First Drive NW, which is more residential in nature than either the downtown or Oakland Avenue.

After nearly 45 minutes of discussion, the issue was tabled until a representative from both the city and the Chamber could go and decide together where decorations should go and get a better idea of cost.

At-large council member Dick Chaffee also said he would be willing to speak to different service organizations about using gambling money to fund more decorations.