CORNWALL – There will be more lights going up in the Rotary Traffic Circle in the coming days – just not to the extent proposed by city staff.
Council didn’t have an appetite Monday night for decorative snowmen and deer, pre-lit artificial trees or wrapping the center flag pole with red and white lights – all with a price tag of just over $14,000.
Instead, it approved $7,600 in basic lights – 193, 25 foot strands of lights or just over 4,800 feet of Christmas décor. It’s expected to triple what’s already there.
Coun. Elaine MacDonald supported doing the traffic circle lighting as a “one-off” but thought council should have a deeper look next year at where decorations should be put up – possibly around the entrance to Cornwall from Cornwall Island (Brookdale Avenue and Water Street).
Coun. Todd Bennett asked if there was still the lights from Lamoureux Park Canada 150 in storage.
Parks Supervisor Scott Porter told council they were removed after being up longer than they should have been. About 80 per cent of them were burnt out. What was left was put in the trees around the civic complex. “Even in that time, since we’ve done that, half of them have burnt out. We don’t have those lights anymore,” Porter said.
The $7,600 for the Rotary Traffic Circle lights will come from reserves if there’s a deficit at the end of the year or from extra cash if there’s a municipal surplus.