More light, please

TOM HESS / Hungry Horse News

The Christmas tree and candle fixtures on lightpoles along Nucleus Avenue and U.S. Highway 2 came down last week. Snow and ice kept utility crews busy well past the holidays, but our friends at Flathead Electric Cooperative got the job done.

Later this year the volunteer crews will be even busier, because the Lions Club, caretaker of the lights, plans to not only replace the fragile strings that have served the community for more than 50 years, but add to its inventory of 32 fixtures and brackets for the 2010 holiday season.

The Lions Club hopes one day to hang lights and fixtures on as many as 62 lightpoles — extending up and down U.S. 2, Nucleus Avenue, and around Glacier Discovery Square, and adding a northbound stretch up Railroad Street.

As we reported last week in the Hungry Horse News, Glacier Park Inc. gave the Lions Club an $8,000 check. That donation doubled the amount of money the Lions Club had raised for new lights, fixtures and brackets. The money will allow the Lions Club to consider buying LED fixtures to replace the standard bulbs, many of which break every year.

If the club can raise even more money, it will upgrade to higher-quality lights.

Mark Johnson of the Lions Club said the Christmas lights committee will meet Jan. 21 (today) to discuss plans for purchasing the new lights. The State Farm insurance agent, speaking from his agency's warmly refurbished office space in the old Coldwell Banker building on U.S. 2, said the committee will take advantage of the discounts available now that the holiday season is over.

Barbara Proctor, a Lions Club member and advertising saleswoman for the Hungry Horse News, is on the committee. She appeared on the local news last week, explaining to TV viewers who really owns the lights.

"The lights don't belong to the Lions Club," Proctor told me. "They belong to the people of Columbia Falls."

Lions Club continues to accept donations for new Christmas lights. Call Mark Johnson at 892-5500 for more information or to make a contribution.

Barry Conger, of the First Best Place Task Force, and Glacier Discovery Square, gently mentioned to me at a Chamber of Commerce After Hours event last week his disappointment that I had edited out a key sentence from his column in last week's Hungry Horse News.

Here's the missing sentence:

"Help make 2010 the year of doing."

The First Best Place Task Force is all about reinvigorating a spirit of volunteerism in Columbia Falls.

Conger had hoped that his column, the first of what he and I hope will make a monthly appearance in the paper, would emphasize "doing" more than any other message.

I agree with Conger's vision. As the longtime editor of a national magazine that encouraged community involvement, I think one of the most important things any publication can do is give readers the information they need to make their cities and towns an even better place to live, work and play.

Thanks, Barry, for the reminder. And for all that you do.

Learn more about what Barry is doing at www.firstbestplace.org.