IVINS — Holiday revelers driving through Ivins might feel a little left in the dark this year as city lights and Christmas decorations have not been put on display.
The absence of decorations didn’t sit well with Ivins resident Agnes Smith who wrote a message to St. George News with the subject line “Ivins City is Bah Humbug Scrooge City.”
“This Christmas Ivins City has decided that Christmas is not a priority to put up any holiday decorations,” Smith said.
And this wasn’t the only request received by St. George News asking to look into the issue. However, the seeming lack of holiday spirit is due more to a lack of resources than desire, Ivins City Parks and Recreation director Benny Sorensen said.
In the spring of this year, there was a fire in a storage shed that housed, among other things, the city’s lights and Christmas decorations. Approximately $60,000 worth of equipment, including about $3,000-$5,000 worth of holiday décor, was damaged or destroyed, he said.
Many of the decorations that were stored in the unit were specifically sized to fit light poles and other features in the city, which means that replacing them is not a simple matter of going to the local hardware store.
But Smith said that though the city received insurance money following the damage done by the fire, they decided that Christmas was not a priority.
“As a citizen and a tax payer, myself and several others are saddened and angry that all the other cities have decorated their towns and Ivins decided to skip Christmas this year,” she said in her message.
Sorensen said the parks and recreation department chose to focus on a crucial cemetery expansion project rather than replacing the festive decorations.
There is an urgent need to expand the cemetery – a project that is currently underway, he said. There are only about 7-10 cemetery plots in the existing section of the cemetery and people are already trying to order their plots in the new section.
“People are going to need to be buried in (the new section) and they can’t be until we finish it,” Sorenson said.
Ivins City Council will hold its regular meeting Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers at the city office building, 55 N. Main St., Ivins.
The agenda, which can be found here, does not include anything about holiday lights or decorations, but Sorensen will be reporting on the cemetery expansion project.
Those attending who wish to bring the light situation to the council’s attention can do so during the public comment period by filling out a speaker comment form prior to the start of the meeting. Comments are limited to two minutes per person, and the mayor and city council will not take any action on the comments at the meeting.
Though Sorensen said he hasn’t heard from many disgruntled residents, he did say the department was going to try to at least put lights on the front of the city building.
“We’ll do what we can,” he said.
The city will also be holding a holiday hike for kids Dec. 15 and will be the host of the Run Run Reindeer holiday race Dec. 22.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
The city didn’t have insurance on the storage shed and contents inside? Unbelievable!!
“But Smith said that though the city received insurance money following the damage done by the fire, they decided that Christmas was not a priority.”
The city must have had way more important things to buy. Welcome to Ivins, screw Christmas!
In the classic 1980 comedy movie Caddyshack – Rodney Dangerfield’s character Al Czervik exclaimed -“I tell ya, golf courses and cemeteries are the biggest wastes of prime real estate”… and he is so right.
I could be wrong here, but it seems to me like businesses are not decorating for the holidays the way they used to. From retail outlets of all kinds, to restaurants, to motels.
So it’s not surprising to see the decision by Ivin’s City officials
I agree with the city of Ivins ..good move on their part they are using the tax payers money on important projects and not wasting money on stupid and useless decorations …
To the whiners in Ivins ….get a hobby
Great job City of Washington with your Christmas decorations!
Honestly? Christmas decorations can wait. I like to see my local tax dollars actually working for something like this.
I live just up the street from the cemetery and I drive by it every single day on my way to and from home.
Those guys are out there working hard to make that place look nice and I think my tax dollars are going to something good.
The cemetery is right at the foot of Red Mountain and I think if people want to be buried there, they ought to have a nice place to rest and a nice place for their families to come and visit. People spend time there constantly and it’s a peaceful spot.