Season comes to an end as holiday decor comes down

One of the last remnants of Christmas in Plains disappeared Sunday as the Plains Lions Club removed the holiday ornaments along Railroad Street.

"This is a nice sunny day for this," said Dave Helterline, one of four Lions to take down the decorations. Helterline has been putting up and taking down the ornaments since joining the club over 64 years ago. He said they've seen some bad weather when putting up the decorations in November, but even worse at times when removing them in January.

"We've had some really cold days taking them down," said Helterline, who said they used to have the decorations on posts on the other side of Railroad Street when the program started. When he first began with the Lions Club in 1957, they used a forklift from Diehl Lumber, then a Bell Telephone company truck before NorthWestern Energy donated its bucket truck. This was the first year for Ben Miller of NorthWestern Energy to volunteer for the detail. He and his son, Wyatt, 11, helped take down the decorations Sunday afternoon, which took about 90 minutes, around half the time it took to put them up a week before Thanksgiving. The decorations were positioned from Highway 28 to Central Avenue.

Lions Kevin Kerr and Rick Powers also helped on Sunday. Powers, who recently moved to Plains from Maryland, joined the club in October and helped put them up. Steve Spurr, the club president, was on hand directing traffic as a Montana Highway Patrol trooper. The club does the decorations on a Sunday because most of the stores are closed and there's less traffic.

Spurr said that all but three of the 27 lighted ornaments, which range from three to six feet tall, are in need of repair. He plans to strip them all down to the metal frame and each will get a new cord, a new plug, and new garland. Only a handful need new bulbs because they were replaced with LED lights two years ago, said Spurr. The decorations are from the 1950s and 1960s. The 24-foot long Happy Holidays sign at the east end will be redone, too. The president of the club plans to have all of them done by next Christmas.

"We could have looked into replacing them, but it would have cost around $20,000 to replace them all in town. We're utilizing the $5,000 that was given to us for the Christmas lights to actually rebuild them all and we'll still have them nostalgic of the original pole ornaments," said Spurr, who added that he feels they spruce up downtown Plains each holiday season. "It looks weird now that they're not up because this time of the year is between holidays so everything kind of gets dreary and dull," he said.

The Plains Lions Club has about nine members who regularly attend club meetings. The club is involved in numerous community activities and events. Each spring, they conduct an Easter Egg Hunt and each autumn they hold a Halloween costume contest and hot dog roast. Spurr said that one of the most important programs is the free vision exam they provide to schools throughout the county.

"I think it's an important organization just because we're non-political, nonpartisan, non-religious. It's just people wanting to help people," said Spurr, who added that it's tougher because the younger generations don't really join clubs anymore. "Everything's social media based now," he said. Spurr noted that anyone wanting to join the club can go to its Facebook page at Wild Horse Plains, MT Lion Club.

The Sanders County Fairgrounds will be removing its Christmas decorations in the near future, said Melissa Cady, the fair manager. Their decorations went up just prior to Thanksgiving. "The wind played havoc with our decorations and we are sorry for that. Our tree on the flagpole was taken out twice by the wind," said Cady, who added that they appreciate the community support once again. "We hope to provide more additions next year to the display and hope the added pieces this year were enjoyed," she said. "We hope the decorations brought some joy and the new picture opportunity was utilized," she said.