Cash-strapped cities trimming yule lights

When it comes to Christmas lights in Utah, tradition has held that municipalities go to great expense to concoct displays that will wow their citizens.

But increasingly, cash-strapped cities have cut — or are looking at cutting — Christmas decorations from their budgets and turned such costs over to the private sector.

Salt Lake City, for instance, quit supplying labor and maintenance costs for Main Street lighting displays in the mid-1990s. And over the past decade, the city has shed itself of any responsibility for downtown lighting displays, handing those duties over to the city's Redevelopment Agency, the Downtown Alliance and other private entities.

"The city said, 'We can't do that anymore.' Financially, they were having some budget difficulties," said Bob Farrington, executive director of the Downtown Alliance.

These days, non-city groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, combine to spend what Farrington estimates at $1 million to light up Utah's capital city.

Still, more could be done with further private dollars.

"For us, it would require some partnerships with other entities," he said.

Salt Lake City isn't alone in using private funds for displays.

In Davis County, the Kaysville-Fruit Heights Civic Committee holds a July Fourth fund-raising breakfast to pay for the annual Christmas star on the mountainside above the two cities.

To the north, Ogden relies heavily on private donations to fund its Christmas Village display.

Already, Ogden and Weber County spend $200,000 in taxpayer funds for the village. But Carolyn Bachman, Ogden's special events coordinator, said that isn't enough.

Each miniature building in the display is sponsored by a private company, from the local mall to the local newspaper. Other needed donations include the trailers, which move the miniature buildings to and from storage, and the hours volunteers donate to run the village, said Carolyn Bachman, Ogden's special events coordinator.

And in South Jordan, the city is looking to take its Christmas lighting needs to the private sector. Currently, South Jordan does scant lighting, but the city wants to do more.

"We've just discussed in the past two weeks a kind of a decoration expansion," said Candy Ponzuric, the city's deputy director of recreation.