City addresses Christmas Lighting Traffic

As the calendar flips one month closer to December, people began making that steady incline to prepare for the holidays. An abundance of holiday commercials infiltrating television screens, neighbors dragging those multicolored bulbs up on their roof and candy canes suddenly being gripped in children's sticky fingers - the first signs that the holiday season is blanketing the nation's spirit. And Leavenworth residents have their own signal that the holidays are approaching as the Chamber of Commerce working hard to hang up Christmas lights downtown before the first weekend of the Christmas Lighting Festival begins. However, preparation goes beyond just displaying the lights and the city of Leavenworth has put into motion action to prepare for the impending traffic. 

At the Tuesday, November 13 city council meeting the council approved the traffic and foot patrol needed for the Christmas Lighting Festival for the upcoming month. At the study session earlier that morning Sergeant Scott Lawrence came to discuss the measures being placed to keep traffic at a flowing pace this year. 

"The plan is to have four deputies to assist with traffic control either at site or required intersections," said Sgt. Lawrence. "And the other five will be downtown foot patrols and relief for traffic control positions and just be available to downtown calls." 

After a few run ins and threats to run down some officers, there was a push for an incentive to keep cars trekking in from being at a standstill which can result in hostile tourists. The city incorporated the help of the Chamber of Commerce, the Washington State Department of Transportation, Chelan County Fire District #3 and sheriff's office to help mitigate the influx of visitors and their journey to the Bavarian Village. 

"I think the biggest issues were getting people out of town, on the highways after the lightening was done," said Mayor Cheryl Farivar. "It also is however the way people come into town and the big blunt of traffic in the early mornings." 

This year there will be added routes to help navigate travelers infiltrating the city to celebrate the lights. There will be a traffic plan for the Peshastin route to keep the traffic flowing rather than stop and surging with the light. The combination of flaggers and the Peshastin route should help lessen the intensity of the traffic. Each flagger will have two officers accompanying them as well. 

"We have been working all year to put together this traffic control plan," said Farivar. "We want to manage expectations here," said Farivar. "This should alleviate some of what we experience at Christmas Lighting, but certainly not all." 

The city spent a total of $90,000 - $70,000 for the traffic control (the flagging company) and $20,000 for public safety (the officers working).  

"This is almost essential to either validate that we can control it (traffic) or can't," said council member Elmer Larsen.