Crews string lights ahead of Lights on Rice holiday parade

LIHUE — When the Rotary Club of Kauai Lights on Rice holiday parade ends at the historic County Building on Friday, the parade-goers will not be greeted with a dark, undecorated lawn.

That was almost the case.

“This is so last-minute,” said a spokesperson from the mayor’s office. “We were not aware that with the departure of the Festival of Lights to Kukui Grove, there was not going to be any lights in the historic County Building lawn. Chief of Staff Sarah Blane spearheaded this effort after she learned of the no lights situation.”

Starting Wednesday morning, crews from the county’s Public Works, Department of Parks and Recreation and Kauai Fire Department were joined by crews from the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative and Hawaiian Telcom and their respective boom trucks.

Genies from Service Rentals and Bacon Universal joined the effort and were used to hoist crews into the boughs of the monkeypod trees.

Mayor Derek Kawakami even took his turn in the bucket to help put up lights.

The mayor’s office said the big push toward getting the lights on by Friday included a lot of the crews working on Wednesday to install and test the lights. The Kauai Fire Department will pick up the work today and even on Friday to get the park lit up.

Across Eiwa Street at the Kauai Museum, the staff working in preparation of the Christmas Craft Fair that starts at9 a.m. Friday looked out the window at the scene of lift trucks and workmen. They were grateful that “someone saved Christmas,” and got the lights up.

In the midst of the bustle, a Department of Water crew arrived to assess damage to a water junction box. Thankfully, a crewman said they were able to work on it despite the lighting efforts underway.