Photo of the gates at Jackson Park courtesy of the City of Windsor.Photo of the gates at Jackson Park courtesy of the City of Windsor.
Windsor

Windsor May Scale Back Christmas Light Display

A controversial holiday light display by the city of Windsor is getting another look.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said he will take another look at the proposal passed last week by city council to spend $3-million on a Christmas display in Jackson Park. Speaking during the council meeting Tuesday night, the mayor said he has heard the feedback and the criticism loud and clear, and in light of last Tuesday's historic flooding, he wishes to "scale back" on the display.

While Dilkens continued to tout the light display as a proposed finale to the city's 125th birthday celebration and Canada 150, he doesn't want residents to correlate the display with the flooding. The floods took place after a divided council voted in favour of the light show with Dilkens breaking the tie.

"In an effort to try to address what I'm hearing on the street... I don't want this festival to be tainted," Dilkens told reporters after the meeting. "It's supposed to be a festival for the community. It's free, it's family, it's fun."

The mayor pointed out that the light display had been in the works for a couple of months and the report had been made public 11 days before the flood, but he understands that the timing could not have been worse. Still, Dilkens is hearing charges from residents that sewer upgrades were being sacrificed for the Jackson Park light show.

"Some have tried to imply that because we've done this project, that we're starving the sewer fund, that we can't do other sewer projects. It's complete nonsense," says Dilkens. "But I understand that it's penetrated some folks who now believe that."

The $3-million would have been spent on lighting and equipment for the light display, and the city says no taxpayer funds are being used. Dilkens says he will work with the city administration on a plan to put the light show on for half the price tag, using the contributions already made by Enwin Utilities and Caesars Windsor.

The mayor now wants to tone down the display for the year and build on it.

"I'm happy to revisit that, phase the program in," says Dilkens. "We'll do something that's not going to be spectacular this year, but it's going to be really nice, and we'll build on that for future years."

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