Contractor begins installing holiday lights

Holiday lights are being strung around saguaros and palo verdes on the Chandler Boulevard median between 24th Street and Desert Foothills Parkway.

The Festival of Lights' mile of million white lights holiday display doesn't light up officially until November. But professional installers Christmas Light Decorators started putting up lights Monday morning.

Company president Doug Topham said the project could take several weeks to complete. Although an errant white light or two were left on Monday night, they're not scheduled to be officially turned on until Nov. 24, three days before Thanksgiving. Then, they'll shine each night from 5:30 to 11 until Jan 1. This is the second year Christmas Light Decorators have been contracted by the Festival of Lights. The Mesa-based company also decorates the courthouse plaza in Prescott, Mill Avenue in Tempe and Glendale Glitters in Glendale, among others.

Their lights are LED strands, which use less energy than traditional lights.

But even as the holiday lights are being strung, the question of how to power them is still up in the air.

Festival of Lights administrator Dixie Prosser said they're "frantically trying" to secure an electrical contractor to help install electricity to the median. At present, only a few portions have access to power.

She said Salt River Project told the volunteers that once they install the necessary conduits, SRP will deliver the electrical service to existing streetlight poles.

If electricity isn't available by November, the lights will be once again powered by generators. In an attempt to ensure last year's theft of seven generators in three separate incidents doesn't reoccur, Topham said each generator will be encased in secure iron landscape boxes.

"But whether or not we get the electricity in November or December, it doesn't impact the holiday lighting," Prosser said. "We hope to have electricity in by the following year, however."

The Chandler Boulevard lights have been an Ahwatukee tradition since it was begun by developer Del Webb in 1986 when the area was being built. Webb bowed out in 1993, and after two years without the holiday lights, a group of homeowners took over, establishing the non-profit Festival of Lights.

The group hosts annual fundraisers to keep the lights ablaze: the spring Wine and Beer Tasting Festival and charity golf tournament, and the Festival of Lights 13th annual Kick-Off celebration, which will be Nov. 29 at Desert Foothills Park.

The one-day family carnival offers local entertainment, crafts and children's activities and ends with a Harley-Davidson parade ushering in Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Information: www.folaz.org.

Jorge Pantoja climbs a tree along the Chandler Boulevard median in Ahwatukee Foothills to start placing Christmas lights for the annual Ahwatukee Festival of Lights event in November.