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*sff iNo Christmas LightsIn Many CommunitiesBy CHRISTINE MCKNIGHT Associated Press Writer Rudolph the reindeer and his red nose are getting a break in many New York State Christmas displays this year because of the energy crisis.Almost without exception, yule light displays are being eliminated or curtailed by retail merchants and local governments. Many retail groups are considering shortening shopping hours.Utilities, meanwhile, have been urging businesses and homeowners not to even set up traditional outdoor displays and to use smaller bulbs in their Christmas tree lights.New York State’s official Christmas tree, a 40-foot white spruce,-will be illuminated for one hour only each day, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.“Its lights used to burn 64 hours a night,” a spokesman said. “If the situation gets any worse, we’ll cut that back to half an hour.”The New York City government has issued no call to reduce Christmas lights, but the 1,000 retailers who are members of the Fifth Avenue Association have agreed to cut power used in their displays by 25 per cent and to shorten the hours during w'hich their Christmas lights are on.The Corning Downtown Merchants Association said it would erect Christmas lights as usual, but they will remain unlit. Thomas J. Gill, chairman of the group, said the association is working to start a movement among all communities in the southern tier counties.Buffalo’s Main Street will be without lighted Christmas tree ornaments for the first time in21 years, a spokesman for the Buffalo Retail Merchants Association said. A spokesman for the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. said the utility is planning to go ahead with Christmas lights on the tower of its downtown Buffalo building. About 17,000 multi-colored bulbs are used in the display, normally lit 24 hours a day, but the spokesman said officials were considering reducing the amount of time the lights are on.The Downtown Jamestown Merchants Association plans to install Christmas lights but they will come down the day after Christmas, resulting in a22 per cent savings in energy, a spokesman said. More elaborate lights were left on last year until after New Year’s Day. Jamestown merchants are also being asked to reduce window display lighting by 50 per cent.The Monroe County legislature has approved a resolution asking all merchants not to erect Christmas lights and decorations until after Thanksgiving. But Thomas Edel, director of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce Retail Merchants Association, said he was skeptical of the effectiveness.“It’s like passing a resolution on motherhood,” he said. “It’s something we’re all cognizant of.”Fredonia Mayor Charles St. George has flatly banned the Chautauqua County village’s Christmas lights.Elmira will install new decorations next week, but has de-m1cided nbt to turn them on. Officials in Elmira Heights. Horse-heads, Johnstown, Middletown, the Ulster County village of El-lenville and Mechanicville in Saratoga County also plan to install Christmas decorations, but the lights will remain out. Scores of other retail groups and local governments in the state have similar plans.Small miniature lights will be installed on trees planted last summer in the Syracuse business district, but officials say khc lights will draw only 2,900 kilowatt hours of electricity, compared with 55,000 kilowatt hours required for Christmas lights last year. Merchants are also reducing lighting displays, notably exterior lights.In Rome, where Christmas lighting has been moderate in the past, retailers are considering a cutback in the hours of illumination.Merchants in Utica say they will voluntarily re luce their energy consumption by cutting back on the number of Christmas lights left on after stores close.The Liberty Pole, a large permanent decoration in downtown Rochester, will be turned on for six hours each evening beginning Nov. 23. The display has been illuminated 12 hours daily in the past. Rochester Gas and Electric has announced plans to decrease exterior lighting, and will not light up one side of the building in a Christmas tree pattern, as it has done in the past.Poughkeepsie officials, like those in many other New York State communities, are calling on citizens to restrict or eliminate outdoor Christmas lights.
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Glens Falls Post Star And Times
Glens Falls, New York, US
Fri, Nov 16, 1973
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USA 27 Jul 2024
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