Fairfield Chamber seeks funding to repair Central Park ornaments

FAIRFIELD – One of the highlights of the holiday season is seeing Fairfield’s Central Park decorated with life-sized and colorful lawn ornaments.

However, maintaining those ornaments is not cheap, and that’s why the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce fundraises every year to repair or replace pieces. Chamber Director Mendy McAdams said this year’s Tree of Lights campaign has raised $6,500 toward the effort.

It may surprise residents to learn that it costs between $1,000-$5,000 every year to repair ornaments, and McAdams said the price of repairs is only getting higher. For instance, the chamber spent $1,000 on a blow-molded leg for one of the reindeer in the carousel in the bandstand. Those reindeer were made in the 1950s or 1960s by a shop class at Fairfield High School, and many other ornaments are about that old, too.

McAdams said Iowa winters take a toll on the ornaments in the couple of months they are outside each year. The tall candles along the sidewalk have faded from red to orange, and some of them are falling off their base. One of the lady carolers had to be repaired last year after a mouse’s nest was found inside her. McAdams said a further complication is that some of the ornaments were never meant to be outdoors.

“The house with the three little elves used to be inside MidWestOne Bank, and they donated it to us,” she said. “It was meant to be inside, and the elves are actually mechanical and used to move. But the roof and walls of the house are not sealed. You can see between them, and that lets in water, which creates mold.”

McAdams recognizes the sentimental value these ornaments have for Fairfield residents, so instead of getting rid of them, when it’s time to retire them the chamber will auction them off, and use the money for replacements. The chamber also tries to recycle as much as possible, like this winter when a group led by June Lowenberg put new lights and big red bows on the lamppost wreaths. The wreaths had mismatched lanterns on them, and the chamber plans to hang those lanterns on trees next Christmas.

Apart from maintaining the ornaments, the chamber and its volunteers put a ton of work into the Santa house and workshop, which hosts children every Friday and Saturday from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year, McAdams said that close to 1,000 kids visited Santa.

“We had to paint the inside of the workshop, and replace the icicle lights on the building,” McAdams said. “I don’t think people realize how much goes into having those open [four] weekends. We go through 250 cookies per weekend, and our last weekend was record-breaking. I had to buy more cocoa and cookies because we had over 300 kids come on our last Friday, and Saturday was just as busy.”

  Buy Photo

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

  Buy Photo