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September 30, 2008

Let’s light it up

Volunteers needed to get Christmas lights ready for Main Street

Toni Hopper

DUNCAN — It’s only the beginning of autumn, but Duncan’s Main Street Program Director Tammy Johnson is already thinking of the joys of Christmas.

The Main Street program has inherited a warehouse full of Christmas lights and is anxious to see Main Street light up for the holidays.

“If not one person says they will help me, then I can’t do this,” Johnson said.

More than 10,000 square feet of outdoor lights and displays — mostly housed in a City of Duncan warehouse, along with storage in other facilities — officially belong to businesses and individuals who purchased them years ago.

Johnson is looking for volunteers to help sort those lights, replace bulbs and start hanging the lights and displays that once were featured prominently along U.S. Highway 81 in Duncan’s parks until about three years ago.

“We have the bulbs, we just need to get them in the displays and have the displays ready,” she said Monday.

While Main Street Duncan Inc. has inherited the items, Johnson is encouraging any business or person who originally bought the lights to either contact Duncan Chamber of Commerce to claim or release claim to the items. Johnson said she doesn’t want to permanently take a display for Main Street if someone else is wanting to display it. Still, Johnson acknowledges the lights as community property since many of the items don’t have “owners.”

Johnson is like a child in a candy store at Christmas as she talks about the lights and lighting up Main Street.

“We bought them and we don’t need to let somebody else have them,” she said. Apparently, other cities in Oklahoma had contacted Duncan Chamber of Commerce and offered to take the lights. The City of Duncan has been storing the lights in a city building and not been able to use that building, Johnson said.

“The city does not own any of the lights and they are ready to move them out of there,” she said.

“We need to put them up. Our kids need to see them. How come we have to get in our cars and go to Chickasha to see them when we own lights and just need to put them up?” she said. “We’re promoting tourism in Chickasha. We need to promote tourism in Duncan, but we need to put effort into this and have the Chickasha people come to Duncan to see the lights.”

Among the many light displays is a gigantic wreath that once graced the exterior of the Duncan Regional Hospital, a “welcome” light, religious displays, and more. If any of the businesses or even private homeowners want to display any of these items, they just have to contact the Main Street Duncan program, Johnson said.

“It’s a multi-million dollar display, to my understanding,” she said.

Main Street has already claimed the snowflakes that will go on the light poles up and down the original historic merchant district.

She does want people to be aware that if they take a display for use, it involves some work.

“If you don’t have a powerbox at your facility, you’ll have to hire an electrician to put one. The lights go out every two to three days and you have to replace them.”

And even if nobody in Duncan steps forward to claim lights or offer to display them, Johnson said she still will get the snowflakes hung along Main Street.

“Am I crazy, or would you be willing to help me,” she quipped. “I need the community’s help. They belong to our community and I think they’re important.”

Johnson is also realistic.

“There’s no way we can get them all up, but if we get some volunteers, we can get some of them up.”

Volunteers or businesses wanting to assist in getting the lights and displays ready should call Main Street Duncan, 580-252-8696. Johnson said work would have to begin this week in order to get the lights ready and installed in time for the holiday season.

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