Good morning,

It was great to see many of you at the Chili Supper and Holiday Walk last night. Another nice evening in Glen Ellyn!

A thread by this name was started under "Shopping...etc." below and asked some questioins. Here is some information - hope it helps!

Upon returning to downtown Glen Ellyn on the train about 10 p.m. a week ago Friday with a friend from Des Plaines and seeing the lights, the friend remarked "Oh, they must not be finished." This started my concern. It was added to by a number of resident emails and phone calls. "I'm on my way to a Mexican place in Elmwood Park, but what is the story with our lights downtown?" That type of question/comment...

Village Management was made aware of the inquiries. At Monday November 23rd's televised board workshop Public Works Director Joe Caracci offered this report about the lights.

(Please note I am writing from memory and this post is not "official" - just trying to help.)

The village has used an outside vendor to hand the lights in the CBD for many years.

About three years ago the village switched the way in which lights were hung. They used to be hung by a pole from the ground. This made for a pedistrian friendly display - really nice from the sidewalk when people were walking. The change was to be have the lights hung by a cherry picker. This allowed for hanging the lights higher, along the perimeter of the tree, creating more of a spherical "horizon" display. That is, the lights would look better from a distance - looking from Hillside or Anthony into the CBD, for example.

Last year's lights received a number of compliments. The RFP sent to vendors was based on last year's specifications. A new vendor, the lowest responsible bidder, did the work this year. The vendor had references from a number of suburbs similar to Glen Ellyn.

The number of lights per tree - 1200, iirc - is the same as last year and the maximum number allowed by the electrical infrastructure in downtown Glen Ellyn. The bigger the tree, the less area is lit.

Last year's vendor highlighted the Christmas tree in the center of town by placing more lights on the trees closer to Christmas tree and fewer as the trees got farther away on Main and Crescent.

The village paid around $21,000 for the lights, pole wrapping and some other decorations. The board workshop report showed examples of other lighting. More lights per tree, if the electrical infrastructure allowed for them, would cost about $50,000. Outlining branches on the trees would cost over $100,000. And outlining the trunks with the above over $200,000. This is the case in some suburbs.

I think those are the significant points, but please watch the video of the meeting(November 23rd 7 p.m. workshop)at glenellyn.org for more and better information.

Since the meeting, other than the respected comments on this board, there has been little feedback about the lights. The reporter(s) attending the meeting did not choose to run the article in the paper. Therefore, your feedback continues to be welcome. I obviously remained concerned.

Again, I hope that helps. Please forgive the typos...

Happy Hilltopper Day!

Mark

Mark Pfefferman

Thanks, Mark!

There’s an old lesson from the depression era — probably inspired by the “Monopoly” game — that says, “If you can’t afford what you want, don’t buy it.”

When the CBD trees were planted a quarter of a century or so ago, they were small — 1,500 lights filled them quite nicely, thank you.

It was fun while it lasted, but they have grown geometrically over the decades, as trees do. They would probably require at least eight or 16 times as many lights per tree to make them appear as “full” as they did when they were young... which we obviously can not afford (and the power grid can not support).

Therefore, may I respectfully suggest that next year we skip lighting the trees and do a little more with the lampposts. Then, in five or ten years when the trees all die off (which they will), we start over with little eight-foot replacement trees and once again festoon them with lights.

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Ted, you will be visited by three spirits, the GE Historical Society, the Ackerman tree huggers and the GE Preservation group.

What if we spent the money on a Christmas goose for Tiny Tim?

I doubt that there are 1,200 lights in each tree. That would be 12 100-bulb strands...or 6 200-bulb strands. I suppose it would be simple to go and count the connections in the line.

And please....we need to stay on topic!

The tree outside of my office window has four strings in it. Do they make 300 light strings?

Thanks for saving me the work, GEM. If there are 5 strings per tree...I'd be surprised.

Mark,

While I prefer the look of Italian lights, would we be able to put in more LED strands in the trees and stay within the CBD's electrical constraints? In doing so, we would actually match the Civic Center...which sort of looks like the USA section of Epcot in the evenings. If it's a give or take thing...don't light the Civic Center and spend the money on more lights in the trees or something creative with the lamp posts -- per Ted's suggestion.

Hi Admiral,

Yes, according to village management, an almost unlimited number of LED lights can be supported by the electrical infrastructure. The LED light strands are much more expensive initial cost than the "regular" light strands, however.

Thanks. Keep those comments coming!

Mark

Maybe the Village could purchase these lights at the end of the season? Then use them next year?!!!!

I always purchase this stuff at the end of the season and stow it away until next year. It's almost always 1/4 the original price. Then instead of pitching them every year, take them down, carefully store them and use again the following year.

Mark,

Last year (under Vicky's watch) the lighting contractors crashed their cherry picker into the window frame of my building.

I can't seem to get any help from either our village employees or the contracting company.

The damage was about $200.00, my tenant saw them hit her window, yet I'm stuck with the bill.

Waited to see the lights until tonight when I drove up and down Main. If I don't wear my glasses, they look great! But, since I have those expensive trifocals, I relay what the teen girl says: "Sloppily done."

Anyone who has hung lights on their tree at home knows you don't do straight lines. Looks like an ad for a Spider Man movie.

Spider Man...funny stuff....and accurate.

I still think we could have a "light hanging festival" the weekend before Thanksgiving. Families or a group of neighbors could "Adopt a Tree" to string with lights using a pole. Then, the money saved could be used to purchase new, matching LED lights for the entire downtown area. Guidelines could even be provided - or a short training - so that the trees would be lighted in similar manner, regardless of who adopted the tree. I know our family would want to do this - it would be a fun, community bonding event!

Those lights are pretty damned high up there. High in a crappy way this year...but high nonetheless.

I simply can't imagine that this job cannot be done in-house for a crapload less. Not that difficult and we probably have the machinery necessary to do a bang up job.

Although the tree in its present location is great...it is an absolute nightmare to see around. I hope Jim Louthen has awesomely awesome plans for it in the redesign. And we dodged a bullet again this year...no one was smacked by the seemingly dozens of trains that ran through town during the Christmas Walk!! It's almost as if the UPRR intentionally amps up the traffic during that particular event.

I think that if we all signed up to take a night sitting in a tree with a flashlight, it will be a huge improvement over what's there. I volunteer my husband first....

One question - what the heck sort of liability disclaimer would have to be written to allow private folks to hang the lights. It's one of those neat ideas that I think gets torpedoed just do to liability issues.

I don't know about how much more cheaply it can be done - at least after seeing how much companies charge for doing even modest lights for private homes.

Amy I think that's a fantastic idea! It kind of gets me that a town so family-oriented as ours pays a company to hang our Christmas lights....does this not completely contradict the family concept that we all treasure?

RMK: that Spider Man thing was pretty funny. I hadn't thought about it previously, but now that you mention it....even my 9 year old knew they looked goofy.

Clam: Even without the machinery we could've done this better. We are a very community-oriented town, why can't the community do it? Or at least most of it, anyway. I was thinking the same thing about all the trains! We were walking around prior to Santa's arrival and I made a comment about it seeming like they were running every 20 minutes that night, wth??

Lmao, Scribbler.

Darl: Liability disclaimer or not, I'd still be willing to do it. There are enough attorneys in this town, I'm certain that we could find one who would be willing to review any disclaimers. Not to mention, it needn't be much more involved that those signed with Park District sports.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark Pfefferman:

The number of lights per tree - 1200, iirc - is the same as last year and the maximum number allowed by the electrical infrastructure in downtown Glen Ellyn. The bigger the tree, the less area is lit.

As suspected by other posters, this information was not correct. (Again, please review the video for the exact report if you are interested!)

I apologize.

There are a total of 1,200 STRANDS of lights hung in the trees in the CBD, just over 600 lights per tree on average.

Thanks again. Please keep the comments coming. They help generate ideas for the future.

Mark

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mark Pfefferman,

You do mean just over 600 LIGHTS per tree, right?

I just want to clarify to head off further confusion....