Tree lighting downtown’s signature event

A budget of $25,000 for upgrades to the downtown holiday light displays will brighten spirits even more this year.

Hot Springs Parks and Trails Director Jean Wallace said the funding allowed for the addition of “holispheres” and snow tubes, a Christmas sleigh and toy soldiers.

Those will be among the new displays to stir up the holiday spirit during the 13th annual Chili Cookoff, sponsored by the Downtown Association of Hot Springs, and the lighting of the downtown Christmas tree Monday night.

“They are 99 percent finished putting up the displays right now; we’ll have them up 100 percent on Monday when it’s time to flip the switch,” she said Friday. “Several of the park maintenance employees came in on Wednesday evening and went through a trial run to make sure everything was operating correctly.”

Competitors in the chili cook-off, the Downtown Association of Hot Springs’ only fundraiser for the

Christmas light program, will be provided with free electrical access for their cooking, as long as they provide their own cooking fuel, chili fixings, pots and utensils. Tasting cups, spoons and condiments will be provided for all ticket holders.

Judging of the chili will begin at 4 p.m. and the event will be open to the public at 4:30 p.m. Admission to the event is $5, with water and soft drinks $1 each and beer is $3.

KATV Channel 7 meteorologist Ned Perme will flip the switch at 6 p.m. that lights the downtown decorations at this signature Spa City event.

Wallace said the display of animated lighted trees on Arlington Lawn has moved further south to the center of the lawn, changing the location to one more visible from Central Avenue. “We’ve also converted many of the trees to LED lights. It saves on electrical costs and the LED lights are also brighter and last longer,” she said. “However, they are more expensive so there is an upfront cost, so we were only able to do about half of the trees this year; we will do the other half next year. We were hoping to do them all this year but the cost was a little bit more than we thought.”

Of the $25,000 budget, Wallace said $10,000 was donated from Visit Hot Springs and $5,000 came from the merchants association.

“The city also contributed approximately $5,000 in miscellaneous expenses, such as electrical tape and extension cords and a lot of items that are not reused every year,” she added. “The city provided the labor costs for the crews to install (the decorations).”

Wallace said this is the final year of a five-year improvement program for the holiday displays and that the city will finish out the LED lights next year. “We’ll probably have a few more surprises in the works,” she said.

“We need to make sure that we are 100 percent by the time the switch is flipped on Monday,” she said.