Who’s responsible for downtown Christmas lights? Not even mayor knows

Every year at Christmastime, the usual suspects emerge downtown.

The Santa hat-wearing dragon, the saluting Nutcracker and the snowflakes along the light poles on Douglas.

Those Christmas decorations are now 15 to 25 years old, and it’s not clear who exactly is responsible for keeping downtown’s holiday decor up to date.

It’s a confusing web of who does what – even Mayor Jeff Longwell didn’t know, as he thought the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation had a hand in decking Wichita’s halls.

Decorating downtown is now exclusively a city task, and it never used to be.

“It’s a little bit of ‘Out of sight out of mind – someone’s taking care of it,’ and ultimately no one’s taking care of it,” Longwell said. “I still believe it’s important in our community to have those opportunities to show off our downtown in different ways and put it in lights.”

Downtown dressings

Most of the decorations that adorn the streets in downtown Wichita – as far as anyone knows – were purchased in the early 1990s as part of the “Let It Glow” campaign, spearheaded by Norma Greever.

Individual residents and businesses donated money to buy new Christmas lights for downtown, and the three-year campaign raised more than $185,000.

“It was a really big deal,” said Greever, reached at her Wichita home by phone. “The night that we turned the lights on, I’ll never forget it, because we had about an inch of snow that just covered everything so beautifully. It was a glorious evening.”

The light displays that currently decorate downtown – the ones you see along Douglas by Century II and near the Arkansas River – are the remnants of that campaign.

Wichita’s Park and Recreation Department is responsible for putting them out, maintaining and then taking them in every year.

About two years ago, the lights in most of the displays were upgraded to LEDs, said David McGuire, superintendent of park maintenance and forestry.

“If there is an issue with the displays, it’s the Park Department’s responsibility to repair it,” McGuire said. “If it’s an electricity issue, Public Works’ electricians help us with any issues we might have.”

The large Christmas tree on Kennedy Plaza is about 25 to 30 years old, “and that’s just from guys that work in my forestry department that have helped put it up for a good many years,” McGuire said.

Public Works and Utilities is responsible for hanging up the snowflakes along Douglas, Main Street, Century II Drive and on some Westar power poles.

The snowflakes are about 15 years old, according to Terry Nicholas, traffic maintenance and street services supervisor for Public Works. Nicholas oversees the snowflake operation and the hanging of holiday banners on the street poles.

The Wichita Downtown Development Corporation was involved in the purchase of the snowflakes and the blue banners that say “Winter,” “but there is not much information available at this time regarding their history,” said Jamie Garnett, executive vice president of Strategic Communications at the Greater Wichita Partnership.

“We’ve never replaced any of the snowflakes – they’ve never been broken where they were unusable, but it’s also never been part of our budget to do anything like that,” Nicholas said. “We’ve never been requested to.”

The lights are illuminated each year at the annual Mayor’s Tree Lighting event in early December, and they remain up typically until the second week of January, Nicholas said.

Lights of Christmas past

The task of decorating downtown for Christmas never used to be solely the city’s responsibility.

Until about a decade ago, there was a nonprofit in town that existed to raise funds for purchasing Christmas lights.

The Civic Enterprises Foundation was founded in 1981, and it appeared to play a major role in bringing new lights to downtown Wichita, based on Eagle archives and the recollections of those who remember it.

Until the 1970s, it was commonplace for Christmas lights to adorn nearly every section of downtown, with greenery stretching high above Douglas and animated Christmas displays at Douglas and Broadway, in front of the former Buck’s department store.

“The early 1970s ... that was the zenith for saying, ‘Let’s go downtown and look at the Christmas decorations,’ ” Ron Doty was quoted as saying in 1989. Doty helped create Funtasia, the wonderland of candy canes and Christmas decor that used to fill Finlay Ross Park, the little multilevel park northeast of Century II.

“Wasn’t that wonderful? You could go down there with your kids, your parents, your friends, and be really glad you did,” he said in 1989.

But then, in 1974, “the twin Scrooges of inflation and the energy crunch” put an end to downtown Christmas decor.

Downtown jewelry store owner Opal Wetzel played a large role in bringing the holiday spirit back to downtown in 1981, when she almost single-handedly raised $65,000 to purchase new lights.

When she died in the late 1980s, the spirit seemed to go with her, as the holiday displays of 1989 and 1990 were lambasted by Eagle editorial writers.

The Civic Enterprises Foundation stepped in and, organized by Greever, helped raise the money that purchased Wichita’s most recent Christmas decorations 25 years ago – some of which still adorn Wichita’s downtown streets.

That includes the massive “Puff, the Magic Dragon” re-creation in Finlay Ross Park – which, for a few weeks earlier this season, was on the fritz.

As part of Greever’s efforts, the people of Wichita sent in donations – some as small as $3 or $5 – hoping to see Wichita return to its Christmas glory days, Greever said.

In 1991, the city reaped the first fruits of that campaign, and the reviews of the city’s downtown decor were glowing, so to speak.

Back then, it was a community-wide effort to hang Christmas lights in downtown Wichita. Volunteers hung the lights, led by electricians from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Locals 1523 and 271.

Douglas would be closed for the night while the decorations were hung.

Today, some businesses along Douglas decorate for Christmas – one of the most-decorated this year being Intrust Bank – but the city is responsible for most of the displays and hanging the snowflakes.

The Civic Enterprises Foundation folded somewhere between 2005 and 2007, after “people sort of got tired of putting out the time and energy around Christmas,” according to Roger Mulanax, a former director of the foundation.

“People were active for several years and then they sort of got tired,” Mulanax said.

If the city of Wichita wanted to purchase new lights, it would likely have to be approved by the City Council.

‘Still important in the community’

Christmas decor may not be the first thing on the City Council’s agenda, as it recently voted to spend $10 million on streets and $4 million on public transit.

But, then again, cities across the country are spending on Christmas light displays to show downtown vibrancy and promote tourism, according to Steve Broyles. Broyles owns the Tennessee-based All-American Christmas Company, which sells large, commercial Christmas light displays to those cities and companies.

He said it’s not uncommon for quality Christmas light displays to be used for decades, but after about 30 years, he said, “there’s probably a time to start rotating some new ones in, because they’re probably getting a little worn.”

“As long as the decorations have been handled correctly, they will last a long time,” he said. “It’s not going to deteriorate being in the weather 60 days a year.”

Longwell said he wants to visit with some of the downtown development groups in town to better strategize the city’s plan for holiday decor in the future.

According to Megan Lovely in the City Council Office, the city of Wichita is “more than willing to partner” with any organization that wants to take the lead on decorating downtown for the holidays.

“There’s a reason why we put up the Christmas tree every year and have other opportunities in the core of our city,” Longwell said. “I think those are still important in the community. We’ll visit with those groups that are focused on attracting people to the city so we can figure out how to have a better-coordinated effort.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Who’s responsible for downtown Christmas lights? Not even mayor knows."