Virginia Beach will spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars on holiday lights.
The City Council this week OK’d a plan to replace or repair 17 of the city’s 144 displays that were purchased more than two decades ago.
“Environmental conditions” and time have left several of the 21-year-old displays in “desperate need of repair or replacement,” according to the ordinance appropriating the funds.
The cost of replacing the displays, which are part of the city’s annual Holiday Lights on the Beach attraction, is $220,000.
That figure “could change depending on the response to the City’s (procurement) bid,” according to the ordinance. The funds will come from the city’s Tourism Investment Program Special Revenue Fund.
Bobby Melatti, the holiday lights program director, previously said the city has “reached the point where we’re losing the war” on maintenance for the aging displays.
The Beachevents Steering Committee, Resort Advisory Commission and the Virginia Beach Hotel Association were all briefed on the plan and endorsed it, according to the ordinance.
