Star City to deck the halls with new holiday lights

Winter is moving right along, isn’t it? The holiday season has departed and we’re heading into spring. However, the PIDRC already has good news about next winter’s holiday. We are going to get holiday lights for our Main Street for next winter.
    The City Council has graciously provided the Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee with funds to buy these much-needed holiday lights. And we will be purchasing them very soon. Since they are on sale at this time of year, we will be able to get some nice lights for a discounted price. It will also give the city plenty of time to prepare the poles and receptacles for use next winter. Many thanks to the City of Presque Isle for all its support.
We have also set aside funds for someone to put the holiday lights up, take them down, and care for them during the off-season so they will light up our holidays for a long time. The Presque Isle Volunteer Fire Department has graciously offered to do all of this for us for a small fee.
Since holiday lights are so expensive, we will be limited in the area of Main Street that we can decorate this year. We will soon be deciding what area we can cover with the number of lights we will be purchasing. In keeping with the Star City theme, and to appeal to people of all religions, we have decided to purchase lights in the shape of stars for the poles. We will limit them to the section most central to Main Street initially. The following year, we will have raised more funds and will be able to expand our decorations. We’ve also discussed purchasing an arch of holiday lights to go over either the entry to a parking lot or a street that is adjacent to Main Street. We cannot – by law – put an arch over Main Street. Since Main Street is part of Route 1, we are governed by state regulations and need to be cognizant of the trucks that currently travel that route.
Please write to us with any comments you have regarding our holiday lights for next season. We welcome any suggestions you might have.
We are in the process of applying for a grant to purchase more holiday lights as well and could really use your help. Please get onto the Web site www.MyHometownHelper.com,  and go to “Find a Project.” Type in “Maine” and “Presque Isle,” and then click on “Search,” then “Christmas Lights to Cheer Our City” (under “Projects”). Please fill in the information under “Add a Comment in Support,” read and agree to the Terms of Agreement, and type in your comments. They must be short (400 characters – not 400 words, but 400 letters and spaces). Then, when you’re done, please just click on “Add Your Comment”). Your comment should appear at the top of the column to the right, above other comments.
Don’t forget to consider joining our group. As stated in the last article, we have many wonderful goals we would like to achieve in order to revitalize downtown Presque Isle. But we need your help. You can get more information or sign up to join us by calling Sandy Gauvin (764-0876), Cathy Beaulieu at Wilder’s Jewelry Store (764-0309) or Patty LeBlanc (769-7731).
Please write us with your thoughts and opinions. It’s your city and we need your input. You can write us at: The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee, 411 Main St., Presque Isle, ME 04769, or you can e-mail us at pidrc@yahoo.com.
The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee is an ad hoc committee of the Presque Isle City Council