Work for holiday light show already is well under way

COEUR d’ALENE — Driving into downtown Coeur d'Alene from Northwest Boulevard during the holidays, one of the first things people notice is the clock tower near Independence Point, aglow in festive lights.

J.R. Harmon did that.

"I even took pictures when I was done. I’ll show them to you,” Harmon said Friday morning, pulling his phone out of his coat while close to the ground in his boom lift.

"There’s the clock tower at nighttime," he said with a smile.

Harmon has been a landscaper with The Coeur d’Alene Resort for 15 years. He and about 14 other crew members are responsible for putting Christmas lights on The Resort, the Boardwalk, Christmas Village and the North Pole across Lake Coeur d'Alene.

It might seem like the magic happens overnight, possibly conducted by stealthy elves who labor away while the townspeople are all snug in their beds.

But the more than 1.5 million lights and more than 250 lighting displays that delight residents and visitors each Christmas are the handiwork of dedicated team members, like Harmon, who spend about eight weeks climbing ladders, detangling light strands and braving the elements to produce what has become one of the Lake City's most cherished and renowned holiday traditions.

Led by John Eloe, director of facilities for The Resort, the teams start at 5:30 a.m., rain, snow, wind or shine. They work late into the evening to get everything ready for the annual Resort Holiday Light Show that takes place the day after Thanksgiving.

Eloe and his workers began setting up on Oct. 1, but planning starts in the middle of the summer.

"This will be my 14th year doing this, and every year at the same time I keep looking at the calendar and say to myself, 'Are we going to be set up in time?'" Eloe said. "There's no simple way to do this. There's always something that comes up and you have to be able to roll with the punches and manage the problems as they occur to accomplish a successful show."

Dave Clancey, who works in engineering and as a lighting crew lead, is in his 10th year preparing downtown for the holidays. He said the lights and displays get packed away each year into six trailers. Many of the lights are LED and on steel structures, which reduces the need to detangle cords, he said.

Even though they’re on a tight schedule, Clancey said things are less stressful this year than in seasons past.

"My favorite part is the team I work with, day in and day out," he said. "It's a pretty physical job so every guy we’ve got out there is always working hard."

Landscaping manager Scott Murphy was in engineering and is now in his first year of hands-on work for the light show. He said he's enjoyed turning on the breakers for the ceremony and getting to see what goes on behind the scenes.

"We do it for the kids,” he said. "Everybody enjoys seeing it. The neatest thing to me is people’s thoughts and the perspective of what everybody thinks of it and everybody’s enjoyment of it. It’s windy and cold putting it up, but everybody enjoys it."

Harmon said he sometimes wears two sweatshirts and his winter coat when he's up in the boom, getting rain and snow in his face.

But it’s worth every icy particle when those lights go on.

"I feel proud, being able to know that our team was the biggest part of making that night memorable for someone else,” he said. "Having little kids smile, that makes me smile, too."