Council Finds Year-Round Holiday Lights a Bright Idea

The proposal was simple: String Christmas trees lights on 129 of the city’s new palm trees along Main and California streets for eight weeks this winter to inject a long-lost holiday spirit downtown.

But in a moment of pre-holiday cheer Monday night, Ventura City Council members agreed to extend that proposal for an entire year, saying that the tiny white lights would create an ambience downtown that would lure visitors and encourage businesses to remain open longer.

“I really think it will give the impetus to downtown merchants to stay open in the evening,” said Councilman Greg Carson, who suggested the eight-week time frame be extended to 12 months.

Carson cited similar steps taken by Santa Barbara and Palm Springs to spruce up their downtowns to become more attractive tourist destinations.

The council voted 6 to 0--Councilman Gary Tuttle was out of town--to install holiday lights this Christmas season at a cost of $38,700, and made a non-binding commitment to keeping the lights up all year if the cost is reasonable.

Public Works Director Ronald J. Calkins was caught off guard by the council’s enthusiastic support for year-round lights and could provide no cost estimates at Monday night’s meeting.

“I don’t have a clue what that is going to cost,” Calkins said.

The proposal will come back to the council for another vote in coming weeks. Council members voiced strong support for the year-round plan, but agreed not to vote formally until the exact costs are known.

“I am not writing a blank check,” Councilman Stephen Bennett said. “I need to know how much.”

Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said she did not expect the cost to be high, and reminded council members that downtown merchants had eased the city’s financial load for improvements by committing nearly $8,000 for new holiday banners.

In addition to their discussions of downtown lighting, council members talked about the need to clean and maintain the downtown corridor to protect the city’s $4-million investment in improvements.

A few downtown business owners at Monday night’s meeting asked the council to work with them on a comprehensive maintenance plan and specifically suggested a more frequent street-cleaning schedule and provision of water to clean sidewalks, because some downtown businesses do not have outdoor water faucets.

“We do the best we can,” Book Mall of Ventura owner Diane Neveu told council members during the meeting. “But there is a lot of gunk we can’t get off. . . . I think most merchants would be willing to participate in some sort of plan.”