Latrobe looks to turn up lights on town's holiday displays

As the 2019 holiday season winds down, Latrobe officials are looking to add more sparkle to the city’s downtown displays next year.

The city placed seasonally themed banners on decorative lamp posts recently installed along downtown streets in a cooperative effort with the Latrobe Community Revitalization Program. But Mayor Rosie Wolford is concerned the banners aren’t visible at night.

“The banners are nice in the daytime, but we need to start thinking about some (Christmas) lights on those poles,” Wolford told council at this month’s agenda prep meeting. “It doesn’t have that Christmas feel to it because you can’t really see the banners at night. It looks like we have no decorations.

“We need to start thinking about next Christmas. We’ve got a year to figure it out and get more money” to add lights.

In another program, organized by the LCRP, local individuals and organizations sponsor live Christmas trees that are decorated and placed along downtown sidewalks. Wolford said most of those also lack lights to make them visible after dark.

At least one tree, sponsored by local school bus contractor A.J. Myers & Sons and located across Jefferson Street from the city municipal building, sports a string of multi-colored lights.

The trees, which are placed in individual planters, have expanded in the past several years from 28 to about 50, according to Jarod Trunzo, LCRP executive director.

The LCRP also added decorated trees in a parklet in the heart of downtown, at Ligonier and Main streets, he noted.

Trunzo said the town’s holiday decorations and other beautification efforts are an ongoing project.

“There has been a discussion about lighting up the banners on the poles, framing them in lights,” he said.

Other recent additions to Latrobe’s downtown holiday decor include a train display with animated lights at the municipal building. A committee that organizes the town’s Holly Jolly Christmas event placed at the convergence of Depot and Main streets a figure of Daniel Tiger, a popular character developed by late Latrobe native Fred Rogers for his children’s television show.

At James H. Rogers Park, at Main and Jefferson streets, the McFeely-Rogers Foundation placed a lighted tree and the local Knights of Columbus installed a Nativity scene.

“Every year, progress happens,” Trunzo said of the holiday displays. “You keep building and improving on it.”