After sitting in storage for several years, the City of Moose Jaw is bringing back decorative Christmas lights that will add an extra dose of cheer to the season.
City administration unveiled — and briefly lit up — an example of the Christmas lights during the Dec. 6 regular council meeting. The light was a third-quarter circle with a snowflake in the middle.
Darrin Stephanson, director of public works, explained that SaskPower replaced all the light standards in downtown Moose Jaw several years ago. This forced city hall to keep the Christmas lights in storage until it found a suitable way to power them.
“I’m happy to announce that we’ve reached an agreement with SaskPower to electrify all those standards, and that work was completed this last weekend (of Dec. 3-5),” he said.
There are 26 new decorations that city hall found in storage, with two different examples comprising the collection, Stephanson continued. City crews will install the decorations over the next week; crews have already installed some on the south end of Main Street.
The lights — low-powered LEDs — are not hooked into the photosensor on the light standard and are on continually, so city crews will have to fix that when installing the decorations, he noted.
“We’re hoping they’ll look very nice once they’re all installed throughout downtown,” Stephanson added.
Coun. Heather Eby praised the public works department for finding the decorations. She had expressed interest in them during previous meetings after hearing that these lights might exist.
Besides the city’s Christmas light, Eby praised Wakamow Valley Authority for creating a winter wonderland tour in the River Park Campground featuring more than 100,000 lights.
“It really is lovely. It’s just the beginning of something more exciting over the years. I want to encourage everyone to go down there … (to support this) fundraiser for Wakamow,” she said. “Kudos for them for coming up with something new.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Dec. 13.
