"We are cautiously optimistic that we will have it all up and ready for Saturday's tree lighting, with the Conway Village Fire Department setting up the lights at 10 a.m. Thursday. That's our plan," said Conway town manager Earl Sires late Wednesday afternoon, after town crews worked to check the old lights that have been used for years to light the conifer at the Conway Village Information Booth.
The annual Conway Christmas parade is definitely not going to happen — but the tree lighting, caroling, and the serving of hot chocolate and other refreshments will take place as originally scheduled.
Still to be worked out is whether a screening of a children's film will take place at the Majestic Hometown Theatre.
Sires, saying he felt a bit like Clark Griswold in "Christmas Vacation" when crews checked out the old bulbs from the tree Wednesday, said "a few popped," but others were found to be in working order.
"We had 16 sets of lights resuscitated," said Sires.
Other businesses have come to the aid of the effort. PainCare donated additional lights, and The Conway Daily Sun offered to donate $500 toward the purchase of energy efficient LED lights, whether for this or next year.
Other local businesses also stepped up with donations of lights and refreshments.
Sires worked Wednesday to get the lighting ceremony back on for Saturday at 5 p.m., collaborating with Janice Crawford, executive director of the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Melody Nester of the chamber and the MWV Skating Club.
Also involved were chief Steve Solomon of the Conway Village Fire Department and Conway Village Water Precinct commissioner Joe Quirk, operator of the Majestic Hometown Theater and a past Conway Village Chamber president.
The efforts took place after a story ran in Wednesday's Conway Daily Sun and on the paper's Facebook page, saying that the annual Conway Village holiday parade and tree lighting were not going to happen this year due to a combination of factors — most notably, that since the Conway Village Chamber dissolved in May, no one had taken the lead to organize the events.
The MWV Chamber took over the running of the Conway chamber's information booth after that vote, but not the Conway chamber's events, Crawford underscored this week.
The MWV Skating Club had offered to lead the tree-lighting efforts in recent weeks, but the club's Nester had run out of time during the Thanksgiving holiday week when she sought to buy new LED lights as she was leaving the area due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Melody wanted to buy LED lights. We were not looking for cheap lights as we wanted to make sure they would last and the money would not be wasted," said Crawford.
At Conway selectmen's weekly board meeting Tuesday, selectman Larry Martin — who is employed by the N.H. Electric Cooperative — threw his support for giving some of his own money to the effort, as well as pledging his help to obtaining LED lights, using his electric co-op expertise. "He said that would not happen until Dec. 17, however," said Crawford Wednesday.
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