Christmas on the lakefront

Port Washington’s downtown is a festival of lights during the holidays, with the trees lining the streets covered in white lights, the city’s Christmas tree anchoring the north end of the shopping district and store windows ablaze in color.

The lights follow through to the marina, where colored orbs light up the night.

Now, you can add Rotary Park to the mix.

“My goal this year was to spruce up Rotary Park,” Recreation Director Kiley Scherer said.

Lighting Rotary Park made sense, she said, given its proximity to downtown and its location along the harborwalk.

“We want to bring people to our businesses. That’s the heart of our community,” Scherer said. “We thought, let’s do something little and bring charm to our community and people to downtown.”

The lights at Rotary Park complement others in the area, she noted.

“You have all the downtown lights and the trees that are lit. The marina does its cute lights,” she said.  

“We have a whole lot of walkers in Port Washington, and this gives them somewhere else to enjoy the season.”

A number of people had suggested the city light some of the larger parks, but Scherer said that would be tough given the department staff and budget.

“Coal Dock Park is huge. Upper Lake Park is huge — it would have taken an army to do it there,” she said. “We don’t have the manpower or resources to do more than Rotary Park.”

There are numerous drive-through light shows in the area, Scherer said, but there’s something charming about a downtown that’s lit up.

“It’s not go big or go home,” she said. “We wanted to do the pavilion and trees and a little scene.”

While it’s easy for pedestrians to enjoy the lights in the park, it’s just as visible for many motorists, Scherer said.

“You can drive around during the week and see everything from your car and enjoy the lights,” she said.

Port Washington State Bank funded the park lights, which were installed by the Parks and Recreation Department crew.

“The guys always blow me away with what they can do,” Scherer said. “They swept me off my feet with this.”

The crew strung power throughout the park to light the five trees, the pavilion, holiday tree with Santa, his sleigh and penguins — and the Grinch lurking nearby.

It’s not just Rotary Park that the department has lit up for the season. The department has also strung lights in the trees around the ice rink in Veterans Memorial Park. That project, too, was sponsored by Port State Bank.

“We wanted to make it more welcoming to people,” Scherer said. “I think it was just a little dark out there before.”

Scherer said she would like to expand the Rotary Park lights in the future if people are willing to sponsor them. She’s dubbed it the Lakeside Lights program.

“There’s still a lot of space in Rotary Park,” she said, adding that someday she could envision lighting the entire harborwalk. “I think this is a great start.”

“We have this beautiful lake and it’s really special to have our lights at Rotary Park,” she said.

And, Scherer noted, she has an ulterior motive.

“Connecting people with our parks is my job,” she said. “We’re trying to look at doing that more than just in summer but year-round.”