New holiday lights to adorn courthouse
HOT SPRINGS — New LED lights purchased by the nonprofit organization dedicated to the upkeep of the Garland County Courthouse will adorn the century-old edifice this holiday season, but exactly how they and other Christmas ornamentation will be presented remains a secret until the big reveal on Thursday.
Denice Davis, co-chairman of Friends of the Garland County Courthouse, said the maintenance crew that decorates county buildings doesn’t like to give away too much detail before the lighting ceremony.
“They always want it to be a big surprise, so we won’t know what it looks like until the switches are flipped,” she said. “[There’ll] be lights on the side, columns and front lawn area, but other than that, it’s always a surprise.”
Davis said the configuration has changed since her husband, County Judge Rick Davis, decreed the courthouse roof off limits after it was replaced several years ago with the help of a Friends of the Courthouse donation.
“The county judge forbids people from going up there,” Denice Davis said. “He’s very protective of the roof, so the decorations had to change a little bit. There’s not quite as many, because many of the older decorations quit working.”
Davis said no public money was used for decorations, as the organization pays for all the ornamentation. Other projects courtesy of the courthouse benefactors include last year’s $5,000 donation to refurbish the county courtroom and $2,520 that contributed to last year’s life safety study that showed how to bring the top two floors up to fire code.
The county judge will illuminate the building at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 3. Refreshments provided by the Garland County Extension Homemakers Council will be accompanied by performances by the Lakeside High School Chamber Singers and the Witness singers. The Grace for His Glory praise and worship dance team is also scheduled to perform.
A group rendition of “Silent Night” will conclude the festivities.
Davis said the historic Ed B. Mooney Tree that’s been a fixture on the courthouse grounds for more than a century is too fragile to support maintenance crews climbing on it to hang lights. The Ouachita Job Corps trimmed it in October after the U.S. Forest Service said that smaller limbs could collapse the larger ones that support them.
“We’d love to light it, but we don’t for fear of damaging it,” she said, noting that Friends of the Courthouse has considered buying a ground light to illuminate it yearround.