Yule Lights Contest to Dress Up Street

Until recently, yuletide spirit and Thousand Oaks Boulevard were not often mentioned in the same sentence.

But now, with a blue ribbon hanging in the balance, scores of business owners are expected to dress up their storefronts and the street for the city’s first Holiday Lights Contest.

Organized by the Mayor’s Business Roundtable, the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce and the city, the contest will be judged by a panel of community leaders and officials on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Judging will be Mayor Judy Lazar, City Manager Grant Brimhall and the Conejo Valley’s business man and woman of the year.

Winners will be announced at the Dec. 2 City Council meeting.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be much of a competitor, but it’s going to make the street look nice,” said Susan Duntley, who operates the boulevard’s Copy Station Express Printing and will be decking her halls with silvery tinsel and lights. “That’s the whole point though, to get people to come down here and look at lights.”

Organizers hope that the idea will become a tradition in the 33-year-old city.

“This is really just the beginning,” said Mario Diaz, retail committee chairman for the Mayor’s Business Roundtable. “What I’d like to see is families stopping by every year to look at the lights.”

For information on how to participate in the event, call 446-3300.