Tuesday, March 16, 1999
City will help fund holiday light show
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — While most people are preparing to welcome spring, Florella Randall is all wrapped up in a Christmas project.
Mrs. Randall is raising money to launch Light Up Middletown, an animated holiday display in Smith Park.
City commissioners have agreed to use $15,000 from motel tax funds to help get the project started. They plan to approve the allocation at their 5:30 p.m. meeting today in city commission chambers.
“I'm so excited about this,” Mrs. Randall said. “It's all coming together, but we still have to raise a lot of money to make it happen.”
The light display will focus on the park's pond. It will include a 20-foot fountain on the dock reflecting in the water, a 9-foot swan that dips its head to “drink” from the pond, a 12-foot jack-in-the-box, gallon-sized luminarias around the pond, large snowflakes and several other displays of various sizes. The four shelter houses will be decorated in various themes, including a gingerbread house. A 45-foot tunnel of lights will greet visitors at the park entrance.
“It's a classy display,” Mrs. Randall aid. “I wanted it to be really nice, so people wouldn't come and say, "Is this all there is?' I want them to be thrilled with what they see and want to come back year after year.”
The estimated cost is $100,000, which includes the addition of electrical hookups in the park.
Mrs. Randall and other members of her committee, and representatives of Downtown Middletown Partnership, which is helping with the project, have raised $9,400 from the Middletown Community Foundation and $7,000 from 280 letters sent to residents.
Mrs. Randall said she hopes to open the drive-through display Nov. 26.
The idea was born when Mrs. Randall and some friends visited similar displays in Eaton, Ohio, and Sharon Woods.
“I said, "Why can't we do something like this in Middletown?'” Mrs. Randall said.
Darci's model wants doll info
Taft budget asks more for schools
Highlights of Taft's budget
Mystery hero asks: What's all the fuss?
Fatal accident follows funeral talk
Briton guilty in chat-room romance
Cancer center gains weapon
Ex-agent heads hunt for Erica
Little learners look up to 90-year-old teacher
Police seek suspect in check-kite scheme
Shot rattles police program
Lack of rain cuts threat of flooding
Teacher's $1M to benefit Oxford
Bellevue makes plans for 1st St. Pat's Day parade
Billing fraud charge admitted
Butler halts contract for computers
City will help fund holiday light show
Courthouse bidding case may spur new rules
Glendale wants levy feedback
Jillian's hot, and so are neighbors
Lockland paper factory fire was arson, investigators say
Ludlow can't decide use of grant
Madison Twp. site offered for Butler Co. jail
Money approved for NKU center
More time given for police panel applicants
Pals praise city manager at retirement
Price Hill man to plead guilty in resale scam
St. Bernard to get I-75 barrier
TRISTATE DIGEST
