Md. Town's Holiday Glow Is Zapped
Behind Michael Staup, left, and John Coburn, a sign of Lonaconing residents' feelings toward power authorities.
(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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Monday, December 19, 2005
LONACONING, Md. -- Every year, Christmas lights glittered in this little coal town.
They were like ordinary light bulbs, but tinted in every color, and the Goodwill Fire Co. strung them, pole to pole, building to building, and they cast a magical spell.
Every year, the lights reminded the older folks of times past, when Lonaconing was a thriving hub, where the silk mill hummed on Georges Creek and there was a movie theater on Main Street where Santa gave out oranges.
Those days are gone, and so are the twinkling lights. Disputes with utility companies about safety violations have left the town dark this December. Even the snow is covered in coal dust, the residue of a 21-ton coal spill on Main Street 12 days ago.
"There have always been Christmas lights -- even during World War II," said Betty Fazenbaker, 81, pausing at noon at the town luncheonette. "I don't know who is to blame."
Around Lonaconing, that remains a point of contention.
Verizon Maryland Inc. and Allegheny Power, which own the utility poles in this Western Maryland town, say safety was at issue. The companies' officials say that they offered to help the town correct National Electric Safety Code violations and get the lights up in time for Christmas but that the town chose not to.
The town officials say the offer was too little and too late.
"I have no lights," said John W. Coburn Jr., mayor of the town of 1,100 about 150 miles northwest of Washington. "How did you help us? I'd look up that word 'help' in the dictionary."
The trouble started in July, when after doing things the same way, year after year, something changed. The old light bulbs were becoming unreliable, so the town's Christmas Light Decoration Committee decided to invest more than $3,000 in new strings of lights.
The committee members also decided they would need to install new outlets and sensors on the utility poles. So with an eye toward a Nov. 20 lighting ceremony, the town sent a work order to Allegheny Power.
"We put in the work order in September," said committee secretary Michael Staup. The decoration committee stayed busy through September and October, planning a bike raffle fundraiser, ordering new hooks and wires to string the new lights from pole to pole and building to building, just how people in Lonaconing liked them.
