Lions Club lights up Plains for holidays

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, thanks to the Plains Lions Club, which put up holiday decorations in Plains Sunday morning.

It took just over an hour for Lions Duane Highcrane, Dave Helterline, Harry Legg and Dan Rowan, along with volunteers Justin Holmes and Lloyd Rice with his NorthWestern Energy bucket truck, to put up the lighted decorations along a mile stretch of Railroad Street from Highway 28 to Central Avenue.

Highcrane, the club president, said they decided to do it a week earlier this year because many of the club members are out of town on Thanksgiving weekend. They routinely do the job on a Sunday because there's less traffic and most of the businesses are closed.

"This is great for the community and it's for a good cause," said Holmes, who drove the power truck from post to post. "People really appreciate the Lions and Lloyd for doing this," added Holmes, owner of Plains Drug Store.

Rice, the power company's town manager, has been using the bucket truck to install the decorations some 20 feet high since 2000, but he said next year might be his last because he plans to retire. They hung the 24-foot long Seasons Greeting and Merry Christmas lights across the highway on each end of town and 25 individual ones – snowflakes, Christmas trees, candles, wreaths, and candy canes – on poles along Railroad Street. They also decorated a portion of the chain link fence along the greenway.

Dave Helterline said they were doing this before he joined the club. He remembered the first time he helped with the project. He wasn't a Lions member yet, but in 1956 he worked for Diehl Lumber Company and was told to man the forklift to get the decorations up on poles, which were then located on the other side of Railroad Street. He said they also used to decorate a big fir tree, which is no longer there. Helterline said that Lee Weber of the Lions Club then told him that if he's going to help, he might as well join the club. He joined the Lions the following year and has been helping ever since. He said that the Montana Power Company and Bell Telephone used to help with their bucket trucks.

Helterline said he's done it in all kinds of weather, but he said the weather was perfect Sunday. Highcrane said they were knee-deep in snow in some places last year. He said Rice's truck even got stuck.

Club members checked to make sure the lights worked on the previous Wednesday. The president said they'd like to get new ones, but the cost is about $400 each. They refurbished some and replaced some of the lights last year.

This was the first year for Lions newcomer Dan Rowan, the mayor of Plains, who joined the club three months ago. "They do it as a service to the town. I think it's great," said Rowan.

Highcrane, a Lions member for six years, said he likes decorating the town for Christmas. He said they couldn't do it without the help of Rice and NorthWestern Energy and looks forward to continued support from his replacement. The club usually takes the decorations down the Sunday after New Year's Day.

"I think this is something that's good for the town," said Highcrane. "It's just part of bringing a sense of the holiday spirit to the community and it helps bring in warm feelings."