Inside Today's Edition
Tuesday August 6 2002

Gift Baskets



Reading Eagle: Diane Staskowski

Each of the 86 Pagoda light displays on Penn and Second streets has 117 bulbs. Keeping them all lighted is proving impossible, according to Joseph J. Templin, executive director of the Downtown Improvement District.


Decorative city lights have some seeing red
How many Downtown Improvement District employees does it take to fix a Pagoda-shaped display of bulbs, or install a sponsor's plaque?

By Jason Brudereck
Reading Eagle
Italia Pariseau thinks burned-out light bulbs make the Pagoda-shaped strings of lights on Penn Street look terrible.

“How long does it take to change a bulb?” Pariseau said.

Installation of the streetlight decorations modeled after the Mount Penn landmark began last fall.

There are 86 Pagoda light displays on Penn Street from Second to 11th streets and on Second Street from Washington to Franklin streets.

Each of the decorations has 117 bulbs.

“It's impossible to keep them all lit,” said Joseph J. Templin, executive director of the Downtown Improvement District, which runs the Pagoda light program as a greeting for visitors.

“It's a great program, but it's a lot of work,” he said.

It costs $325 to sponsor a light, which also comes with a plaque to identify the sponsor or an honoree of the sponsor's choice.

More than 60 of the lights have been sponsored, but only six of the lights have their plaques in place. That has disappointed a few business owners who sponsored lights and asked not to be identified.

Pariseau, 75, of Pine Street sponsored two and her daughter, Sara A. Spinka, sponsored one.

“I'm really disappointed,” Pariseau said.

The bulbs are being replaced when DID employees have time, Templin said.

Next year when sponsors will pay a $25 maintenance fee the lights will be taken down in May and stored until October so all of the bulbs can be replaced, Templin said.

Replacing them in the summertime makes sense because the extra hours of daylight make the lights less useful, he said.

Also, that will prevent downtown visitors from growing tired of the lights, Templin said.

That idea angers Pariseau even more.

“They should be up all year because that's what we paid for,” she said.

Pariseau's lights were in honor of her husband, Lionel William Pariseau, who died in 1952, and Monsignor Felix Losito, pastor of Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, Third and Franklin streets.

Spinka's Pagoda light was in honor of her son, James W. McDonald, who died at age 29 in June 1996 when he was thrown from his motorcycle on Duryea Drive near Hill Road.

Contact reporter Jason Brudereck at 610-371-5044 or jbrudereck@readingeagle.com.

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