CHRISTMAS TRIMMINGS STILL UP

Most Christmas decorations come down the first week of the new year, and generally those in Cape Girardeau are no exception. But decorations along Broadway and Main have been forgotten in the post-holiday rush.

Street decorations still hang in downtown Cape Girardeau, but their presence is due more to constraints of time rather than an effort to hold onto the holiday season.

The decorations are displayed each year as part of a three-way volunteer effort. The Downtown Merchants Association purchased the decorations years ago and stores them until late November. When the holiday season begins, the city Parks and Recreation Department provides the manpower to pick up and lay out the decorations at intervals on the streets.

AmerenUE provides the trucks and volunteers to hang and take down the holiday trimmings, after which the Parks and Recreation employees pick them up and deliver them to Merchants Association members for storage.

"We just haven't gotten around to taking care of it," said Doug Grosbeck, AmerenUE southeast district manager. "There's also been lots of bad-weather days this year."

Grosbeck said the decorations will be taken down as soon as possible. The company has been very busy with a recent merger and other projects, and in recent months has been working with others "to identify some alternative means of hanging and taking down the lights."

Merchants Association member Janet Erving said the organization is not concerned that the decorations are still being displayed. Although the decorations are usually taken down soon after the new year, all parties participate voluntarily and must work dismantling of the decorations into their schedules, she said.

"They've been wonderful all these years to give us the help and trucks and the men to do this for us," said Erving. "That's a big job. We are very happy that they do that for us, so we're not going to gripe that they're still up."

Parks and Recreation director Dan Muser agreed. Everything is based on the scheduling of the utility company because they delegate the time, trucks and manpower, he said. Nothing can be done until they have the time to take them down, said Muser.

"We haul them from storage to where they go on the street, and then they put them up and vice-versa," he said. "We've never called in the past. They call us and say when they have time, and we work around their schedule."