The bright lights of the big city are missing a few important bulbs this holiday as far as 6-year-old Tommy Cooper is concerned.
The Capitol Hill resident — a big fan of the seasonal display at the Denver City and County Building — is so sorely disappointed that the facade is not decked out in the giant lit bells and wreaths of recent past years that he has volunteered himself and his parents to go help put them up.
“He’s been bugging me to go and talk to the people who work in the building,” said Tommy’s father, Brian Cooper. “He thinks we should just go in and find the missing decorations.”
Tommy finally pushed his parents to call the city’s 311 Call Center to find out the truth.
“Dear Valued Citizen,” the e-mailed response said, “I have searched high and low and am not finding any information.” Perhaps, the responder added, “money limitations.”
“It wasn’t too satisfactory a response to Tommy’s 6-year-old sensibilities,” Brian Cooper said.
But then, Tommy is a hard case. Each year, after the holidays are over, Tommy has such a difficult time letting go of the extra-colorful Christmas illumination that he builds and rebuilds models of the City and County Building, which he then decorates pretty much year-round.
The city’s facilities manager, Suzi Latona, believes she has a better answer for Tommy, even though he’s apparently after her job.
It takes two people and a lift two to three days to install the bells and wreaths, Latona said. This year, the city instead opted to put snowflakes outside City Council offices on the third level.
“Bells are better. I like bells,” Tommy said after hearing the explanation.
The changes this year, Latona said, are not in any way associated with furloughs or budget cuts.
“And our big deal new this year is lights set to music,” she said.
The display costs $3,000, paid for by the 9News Lights the Lights fund, Latona said.
Bells or no, for many Denverites, the lighting is sufficiently phantasmagoric as is.
“We used to joke, before we had two boys, that the building looked like a giant electric fruitcake,” said Liz Cooper, Tommy’s mother. “But it’s absolutely beautiful to them. And so it’s become more beautiful to us.”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
Times and chimes of the season
For those like Tommy Cooper who need to know:
• The lights at City Hall will go on every night until Jan. 15. They go off at 10:45 p.m.
• Every Tuesday through Sunday at 5:45 p.m., the lights will be coordinated with holiday music. This show lasts about 5 minutes.
• Volunteers will ring the clock-tower chimes at 12:15 p.m. daily, and again at 5:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day but Monday (so City Council members can hear themselves think during meetings).
• The city plans to turn off the lights in Civic Center on Sundays from 5:45 to 10:45 p.m. so photographers can take better pictures of the building.
