Residents upset over lack of town decorations

Residents in Greenwich say they are upset that the town has not decorated Greenwich Avenue this year. They say decorating the street has been a holiday tradition for years, but now the lights don't

News 12 Staff

Dec 20, 2014, 3:38 AM

Updated 3,645 days ago

Share:

Residents in Greenwich say they are upset that the town has not decorated Greenwich Avenue this year.
They say decorating the street has been a holiday tradition for years, but now the lights don't come on when the sun goes down.
News 12 Connecticut spoke with First Selectman Peter Teisi, who says lack of funding this year means lights out.
"The chamber does not want to incur the added costs," said Teisi. "They don't want to run the program, so they spun that off to a new group."
A group called Greenwich Lights took over the project in 2014. A representative from that organization told News 12 Connecticut that they couldn't come up with the money needed to string up the lights.
The town says in years past, the lights have cost between $60,000 and $80,000 per season. They say figuring out who should pay for that expense is the challenge.
Teisi says businesses should pay, as opposed to the lights being a town expenditure. Residents that News 12 spoke with, however, disagree.
Town officials say they are meeting with Greenwich Lights Incorporated after the first of the year, and hope to have the lights back on next year.