Now that folks around Decatur have had some time to set up their holiday decorations, it’s time to set your route to tour the neighborhoods and take in the sights.

Where are your favorite displays this year?

To get you started, this year’s Decorate Decatur winners were announced at the commission meeting last night.

The Commissioner’s Cup winner was 467 E Pharr Road.

Other winners included…

Residential Winners

• 909 S. Candler Street
• 1034 S. Candler Street
• 239 West Hill Street
• 133 West Hill Street
• 207 S McDonough Street
• 123 Fled Ave
• 217 Glenn Circle
• 860 Sycamore Dr
• 228 Harold Byrd Dr

Commercial Winners

• Art Institute of Atlanta
• Downtown Decatur

It looks like the Elf entered a bit too late to be considered this year.

Remember the upside down tree decorations last year?  And how when they didn’t measure up to anyone’s standards, the city replaced them with the old wreaths?

Well, apparently some of those wreaths are 20 years old, so the city and Downtown Development Authority are looking to replace the decorations along with the contractor hired to install them.

From the Decatur City Commission meeting agenda this evening, Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne writes…

The purpose of this memorandum is to request approval to enter into a contract with Universal Concepts for the installation of holiday decorations for the 2014 season.  We bid out the project this year and selected Universal Concepts.    Universal Concepts presented us with the highest level of product recommendations at the lowest cost for installation.  This company is well-respected in the industry and we have worked with them in the past.

Many of the holiday wreaths we currently have in stock are over 20 years old and they show it.   Last year we tried to switch out some of the older wreaths with a different design but the result was less than satisfactory.  We also had a very bad experience with the installation services provided by our former contractor.  Universal Concepts’ proposal includes the purchase of 150 new wreaths for the street lamps, refurbishing 50 of our newer wreaths, lighting downtown street trees and shrubbery, lighting of the bandstand and lighting on all city-owned buildings.   LED lights will be used in all installations and the tree lights will remain through the winter months.  The proposal includes the installation, take down and storage of all decorations.  We propose to add to the inventory over the next few years until we have all new wreaths for the street lamps in downtown and for the Oakhurst business district.  We also asked that simple decoration schemes be developed for each city building to reflect its architectural style.  We plan to add these new items over the next five years.

The total cost for this proposal is $107,000.    We are requesting $50,000 from the City of Decatur to support this project.  The balance of the funds will be paid by the Downtown Development Authority and the Beer Festival fund.   This amount is included in the Community & Economic Development Department budget for FY 2015.  I recommend approval of this request.

Photo courtesy of Chris