T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ Tuesday morning, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a limited light display on the courthouse lawn, for use during the annual Holiday Stroll, slated for Nov. 17.

Tuesday morning, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a limited light display on the courthouse lawn for use during the annual Holiday Stroll slated for Nov. 17.

Again this year, the Holiday Stroll will be co-chaired by mother/daughter designers Debra Hippler and Alushia Fitzgerald of Staging 2 Sell It — a downtown business that also sustained serious tornado damage. The stroll is sponsored by the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD).

“I got a request from (Hippler) and she would like to put up lights on the fence during the Holiday Stroll, and my response was that I would like to see something done that night only,” Marshall County Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke said. “We would power it through a generator we could supply. The electricity that is normally on the grounds is shut off at this point because there has been so much damage to some of the posts.”

Fitzgerald said strands of lighted garland would be woven around the chain-link fence surrounding the Marshall County Courthouse, but only on the side facing Main Street. She said the lighted garland would be attached using zip ties.

The stipulation of the agreement is that the lighted garland be set up a few days leading up to the event and removed in the days following, and only lighted the evening of the Holiday Stroll.

Baedke said the initial hope was to allow lights around the scaffolding on the courthouse, but that would prove a safety hazard. In addition, no lighted displays will be set up within the fenced off area.

“We are going to decorate the street poles from Third Street to Third Avenue and we’re asking store owners to put up displays in their windows,” Fitzgerald said.

The lighted garland is being sponsored by the MCBD and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors will next meet in regular session at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 on the second floor of the Great Western Bank Building, 11 N. First Ave.

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Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at

(641) 753-6611 or

sjordan@timesrepublican.com