The Christmas Light display on Baker Street happened because Mr. John Purlwent Home Dicken Spurway left the City of Nelson $94,330 in his will, when he died in 1983. Mr. Spurway was an avid photographer who worked at the post office for 40 years.
The will stated that the City could only spend the interest earned on the principle for the following:
1) The purchase and upkeep of flags on city owned buildings;
2) The purchase and upkeep of apparatus for lighting or floodlighting the Civic Centre Building, City Hall and other city buildings;
3) Holiday decorations.
In 2012 a group of volunteers requested funds from the Spurway Trust Fund to light up Baker Street for the upcoming holiday season.
The first year we placed decorations and lights on the street lamp poles, this year the building roofs were outlined and the tree trunks in the 400-block were wrapped with lights.
Next year the plans are to complete the tree trunk wraps on the rest of Baker Street.
I would personally like to thank all those who helped prepare and install the decorations for the past two years.
The public works department helped with all the lights in the first year, the fire department — both professional and the volunteers — helped install the roof lights on the tall buildings along Baker Street. A special thanks to all the business owners that allowed the neighbouring stores to plug their roof light into their electrical outlet as outside plugs were not available on each building.
Nelson Rotary Club also volunteered to help after they saw the light show this year.
On Sunday, January 19 a group of Rotarians and the core group of volunteers, removed all the lights and decoration in one hour. Last year it took three hours with fewer decorations.
Thank you to the Rotary Club from the Festival of Lights volunteer group. We hope that the Rotary Club will work with us again and help to install the lights and decorations for Christmas 2014.
The City benefits from volunteers in many ways and there are lots of people who will help if you ask them.
Recently the city advertised to fill 20 positions on six different committees or commissions. They received 30 applications from citizens willing to serve.
Way to go Nelson. What a great city we live in.
Bob Adams is a Nelson City Councillor. He shares this space with his colleagues around the table.