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Main Avenue trees to light up

Trunks will be wrapped with LEDs
Doug Dowers with the city of Durango Operations Department strings holiday lights around trees in 2012 on Main Avenue. The city plans to start wrapping tree trucks on Main Avenue in July and leave the lights up year-round.

Main Avenue will sparkle year-round starting at the end of July.

The city plans to wrap trees from Fifth Street to 12th Street with strings of LED lights and keep them lit three to five hours each night based on the season. Keeping the lights up will save staff members time and the city costs.

“It makes downtown happy,” said Durango City Councilor Sweetie Marbury. “I’m very excited about this project.”

The city currently lights the canopy of trees along Main Avenue four months in the winter for five hours per night, said Sherri Dugdale, assistant to the city manager.

Now, the city plans to wrap tree trunks along Main Avenue to keep the light close to the ground and improve ambient light.

“It’s excitement; it’s commercial vitality,” said Mayor Dean Brookie.

Once the lights are installed, staff members will no longer have to spend time putting them up and taking them down each year.

The new lights are also supposed to be more energy efficient than the set of lights put up around Christmas.

The only dissenting voice among the councilors has been Dick White, who expressed concern it goes against the spirit of the city’s dark sky policies.

He encouraged city staff to purchase lights with a temperature that would minimize the impact on the visibility of the stars.

mshinn@durangoherald.com



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