Friday, March 29, 2024

E.L. adds lights to Christmas display

November 30, 2001
The city of East Lansing has doubled the amount of lights strung around the city this year, including those on the trees along Grand River Avenue. —

They might not be quite the caliber of the lights she grew up watching, but Detroit native Latrice Thurmond is happy to see the city of East Lansing aglow.

“It brings out (the city) and makes it look really nice at night,” the pre-med and family and consumer resources senior said. “They remind me somewhat of home, but there, the downtown is busier and the kids are all out playing. Here we have the lights on the trees and dorms.

“The city goes out of its way to make sure the whole city looks nice.”

East Lansing has doubled the number of trees decorated along Grand River Avenue this year, and a few other spots around the city were decorated for the first time.

“We’re always interested in adding a decorative feature to the downtown during the holiday season,” said Carolyn Bennett, community and economic development administrator for East Lansing. “Grand River (Avenue) is the entrance to the downtown in many ways. It’s what people view from MSU and we wanted it to look nice.”

In the past, the city has decorated 20 trees along Grand River Avenue, Bennett said. But this year more than 40 have been decorated and each tree is strung with 1,000 lights.

“It’s fabulous,” she said. “It’s the best the lights in the downtown have ever looked.”

And finance junior Carson Erard of Birmingham, Mich., agrees.

“They do a really great job of getting everybody into the holiday spirit,” he said Thursday while walking down the avenue. “And they look especially nice once it snows and you can see the lights going all the way downtown to the Capitol.”

And Erard said the lights and holiday celebration in East Lansing are right on par with those in Birmingham.

Adding to the twinkle of the city for the first time this year, the clock tower in the Ann Street Plaza is also decorated with a small Christmas tree, several strands of lights and ornaments.

“It brings a festive atmosphere to the downtown,” Assistant Community Events Director Ami Field said. “(The lights) are beautiful, they remind you that the holidays are here and they instill the holiday spirit.”

But while citizens seem to be enjoying all the new lights, they don’t come without problems, East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said.

In the first few weeks, keeping all of the lights on has been a burden.

“We added so many lights in downtown East Lansing we seriously can’t keep them all burning at once,” Staton said. “We’re changing some electrical service in the downtown so we’ll be able to light them all.”

And the power issues are similar to those an older house would have - too many appliances plugged in makes all the lights go out.

“At first we were unable to plug them all in without blowing a fuse,” Bennett said. “The Department of Public Works and their electrical contractor have been working on it, and the majority of problems are taken care of. I’d say 99 percent of the decorated trees are lit now.”

Sara Luneburg can be reached at lunebur1@msu.edu.

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