Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 28, 1994 TAG: 9411280076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Is this not supposed to be white?" she asked, gesturing at a gray tinsel star-shaped wreath across the street.
Webster works at Blazer Financial Services on Campbell Avenue Southwest - and thus gets to look at the downtown Roanoke Christmas decorations all day long.
In fact, she'd rather not.
"They're old," she summed up. "They look dirty. They look raggedy. They look very well used."
Added Wanda Hollifield, of Mr. Bill's Hair Stylist next door: "I think it's pitiful, to be honest."
It is not necessary to inform Michelle Bono, Roanoke's public information officer, that Roanoke's Christmas decorations look a little like last week's laundry.
She knows.
"I think it's fair to say that we all recognize the decorations do not look as nice as they should," Bono said. "The truth is, they're a little on the dirty side."
Trouble is, the $100,000-plus Christmas decorations, which have brightened the city through seven seasons of holiday exhaust fumes, grime and grit, cannot be tidied up. They can only be replaced.
"People say, 'Why don't you clean them?' Well, you can't clean tinsel," Bono said. "The good news is, they look great at night."
This will be small consolation to those who work downtown - and must look at the bedraggled tinsel in the sunlight.
Not everyone is a critic, though.
Willie Tigner, who was visiting last week from Atlanta, thought the soiled tinsel blended well with some of the brown downtown buildings.
Across the street, minding an Allright Parking lot, Bobby Moses figured people ought to have other things to worry about.
"They look all right to me," Moses said.
Still, Ashley Waldvogel, marketing manager for Downtown Roanoke Inc. - which actually owns the decorations - conceded that they are approaching the end of life.
"We anticipated a life span of six or seven years, and they're at the end of that," she said.
Downtown Roanoke Inc. members and city officials debated whether to hang them up at all this year, but "we decided it was better to have slightly less-than-perfect decorations than no decorations at all," Waldvogel said.
"Even in their slightly dingy condition," she said, "they still help people get into the holiday spirit."
They have help. Other downtown holiday decorating projects - such as encouraging more businesses to string up lights, wrapping the City Market in white pine branches with red velvet bows and placing wreaths on doors - have met with more success this year, Waldvogel said.
The downtown group has appointed a committee to look into replacing their worn-out decorations - although, for the nonprofit group, the estimated $300,000 cost "is just a huge chunk of money," she said.
She said the committee is expected to make a recommendation within the next few months.
by CNB