BONNYVILLE – To kick off the holiday season, the MD of Bonnyville council will be holding a Light Up the Hamlet event in three of the municipality's hamlets in the beginning of December.
The municipality is inviting all MD residents to join in the celebration, have a hot drink, snack on cookies and chat with their elected officials to celebrate the holidays and check out the new lights.
The new Christmas themed lights will be unveiled in Ardmore, Cherry Grove and Fort Kent in the first week of December.
The Light Up schedule:
Dec. 6 – Fort Kent Seniors’ Centre, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 7 – Ardmore Community Hall, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 8 – Cherry Grove Community Hall, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The family-friendly Light Up the Hamlet event will also include a colouring contest for kids.
Council initiative
The MD council requested the purchase of festoon lighting at the beginning of 2022, after learning that existing lights had become a fire hazard.
The cost of the new lights was about $60,000, according to the municipality’s Oct. 26 agenda package.
Streetlights in Ardmore and Fort Kent were already designed to be capable of attaching and energizing the festoon lights, however, streetlights in Cherry Grove, La Corey, and Therien were not.
The municipality's administration contacted ATCO to inquire about configuring the streetlights in Cherry Grove, La Corey, and Therien, so they could also be decorated with seasonal lights.
During the Oct. 26 regular council meeting, council members voted in favour of installing festoon outlets in the three hamlets to allow for Christmas lights to be placed in the communities. The cost of this project was presented as $19,455.
Council approved a motion to cover the expenses through a transfer of funds from the 2022 Drainage Budget to the 2022 Contracted Services Budget.
With this decision, council was aware that the company hired to install the lights, ATCO, was only able to commit to configuring the streetlights in Cherry Grove during the preferred time frame. ATCO was unable to guarantee the completion date of the streetlight upgrades in La Corey and Therien.
Light Up the MD contest returns
The second annual Light Up the MD contest that asks MD residents to submit a photo of their outdoor Christmas decorations will be in full swing as of Dec. 1.
All residents living in the MD are encouraged to send photos of their holiday displays to the municipality. Everyone who submits a photo will have their name entered into a random draw, with four winners receiving a $250 gift card to a local business of their choice, according to the MD.
Full contest rules can be found at the municipality's website at www.md.bonnyville.ab.ca
