By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Call them retro, vintage or just old-fashioned, but Cheney has brought back the old-style, light-pole-mount Christmas decorations that were common in cities for many years.
Light Department director Joe Noland said Cheney Mayor Allan Gainer and the City Council thought in light of the unstable economic climate the country is facing, the decorations would make people feel a little better.
“I've had nothing but positive comments from everybody that has seen them up,” Noland said. “I think it was the right thing to do.”
The decorations are two pieces of metal wound around each other, covered in garland and lit with C9 light bulbs, which are a solid colored, continuous illuminating bulb. The common light used now are the smaller “twinkling” light.
In a world of twinkling lights, and elaborately lit fiber optics, the old-style decorations remind people of the past. Noland said that the people he has spoken to about the decorations all say the decorations bring back memories.
No one is certain how old the decorations are. They were here before Noland started working for the city in 1985. He estimated the decorations are at least 30 to 35 years old.
“They're probably older than that,” Noland said.
Noland said the 7-foot tall decorations hadn't likely been used since about 1994 when the library planted the Christmas tree and began decorating it, though he doesn't know exactly why the city stopped using the pole-mounted decorations.
When the Light Department got the decorations out, Noland said they were covered with dust, needed repair and new bulbs, but the mounting brackets for them were already on the poles. He said the original bulbs were in the basement of West Plains Chamber office, but they were so brittle and worn out they could not be used.
“We'd probably start the tree (or building) on fire,” Noland said of trying to use the original bulbs.
Hanging the decorations is a simple operation requiring about 15 minutes per pole. Noland said the task took about 12 man-hours that began the Saturday before Thanksgiving when Light Department workers did one side of the street and completed the other side on Monday and Tuesday. Noland said crews did most of the work in the early morning to avoid interfering with downtown parking. They did have to take down historical downtown Cheney banners for the decorations. The banners will be replaced when the Christmas decorations come back down.
Noland said a couple of the poles no longer have the outlets on them.
“That's why you might see a blank spot here and there,” he said.
Noland said the city plans to hang the decorations annually. It's probably a good thing that the old decorations were usable. He said new decorations similar in style and looks cost between $400 and $600 each.
Though the city has no intent on spending that kind of money, Gainer said he wants to get more of that type of decoration and expand them further on First Street.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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