MOSES LAKE - A combination of growing costs and a tight budget mean lights won't go onto trees on the Alder fill in Moses Lake.

Moses Lake put lights on the trees on Stratford Road for years, but stopped doing it this year because of the costs of putting them up and maintaining them, Parks and Recreation Director Spencer Grigg said.

"We did it for a lot of years and in the last few years it was a stretch," he said. "We've challenged ourselves to do more with less, but it takes its toll. When we look at our mission as a parks and recreation department Christmas lights are important to us ... but the reality says, 'We've got to prioritize and pick and choose.'"

Grigg explained putting the lights on the trees costs about $2,000, since it takes about 100 man hours and the employees are paid about $20 an hour.

"Most people wouldn't believe it wouldn't take 100 man hours, but we have to close down a lane, so we have to put a certified flagging crew there, so a crew of four becomes a crew of two."

The trees are too tall to string the lights from the sidewalk, and the employees need to use bucket trucks or lifts from the street to get the lights on, Grigg said. He pointed out some agencies would like the city to close the entire street while the lights are strung.

Once the lights are up, the city needed to deal with increasing levels of vandalism, Grigg said. People started pulling on the wiring or cutting it. When the city responded by putting 8-foot lengths of PVC pipe around the wires, vandals cut some sections of the pipe. He estimated it cost the department $1,000 in maintenance.

"We had vandalism on a nearly daily basis," he said.

The department's budget is a hybrid of grants, transfers and money from the general fund, some of which needs to be spent on certain programs, and $1,000 can make the difference between holding a program or not holding a program.

"It came down to which one of the kids' programs are you going to cancel to have lights," he said. "We haven't even crunched the utility costs."

Citizens contacted Grigg about having the lights, he said. The city attorney told Grigg the person would need to sign an agreement to hold the city harmless in case of an injury or other damage, required to have an insurance policy which the city could be added to, and needed to have certified flaggers.

"You can't put an average citizen in the street with an orange vest to direct traffic," he said. "So long-term, because it's too late for this year, if we could get some efforts together and perhaps do some fundraising and donate the money to the city. The smoothest approach (is) to have the city do the installation and somebody would do a fundraising effort to reimburse it."