Lights at Lake funding discussed

Even though it is almost five months until Christmas, Nevada's Parks and Recreation board spent about 30 minutes during its monthly meeting Wednesday discussing the need to have a fundraising event to raise money to improve the city's Lights at the Lake drive through Christmas light display.

"Last year we replaced about half of the lights going around the lake with LEDs. We want to go with LEDs to save money," Dana Redburn, Nevada Parks and Recreation director told the parks board Wednesday.

It cost about $4,000 for that, Redburn said.

"The nice thing about LEDs is their life is a lot longer," she said.

Last year the parks department sent out letters to Nevada businesses and organizations asking for donations to purchase new lights. That raised $800.

"What kind of fundraiser are you thinking of" parks board member Gina Cripps asked.

"Why can't we do a banner like sports teams do listing the donors?" Jeff Post parks board president asked, adding that the more money a person or business donated the larger the name would be on the banner.

Post said he had driven through the Christmas light display in Rolla, which is 10 times larger than the one here and each part of that display had a sign showing which business sponsored it.

Cripps said she would be interested in getting feedback from the people who go through Nevada's display.

"We get feedback each year from participants. One family works the lights and donates all of the donations they receive back to the city," Post said.

The parks department partners with local community groups to man the light display and collect donations from people who drive through the display and then keep half of the money that is collected.

"The feedback we get in December is amazing," Post said adding that people want the display, the question is how do we fund it.

"The issue is how do we maintain it and grow the project and add more displays," he said.

Redburn said they can do the same thing as last year, the money is there for that. But to expand the display and replace the old lightw with LEDs -- there is no money for that.

Cripps and fellow board member Karen Poulon said they were interested in discussing possible fundraising opportunities with Redburn.

Redburn told the board that on July 5, Amy Thornton started work as the new community center director and a new recreation programmer who will start on Aug. 19. She said both people have lots of good ideas to expand the city's recreation offerings.

She also told the board the leak in a dam at the Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course, is not a leak, but a spring that discharges about 80,000 gallons of water per week. The department is looking at what to do with the water.

Repairs to the irrigation at the golf course is underway. She said the pumps are being repaired, which will extend their life by five years. To completely replace the irrigation system will cost more than $500,000, since the current pumps are too small and will need to be replaced by larger pumps that will cost around $100,000.