Is the city of Mankato Scrooge?

The online story comments are buzzing and Free Press Facebook fans are humming on the story about how some municipalities are downsizing holiday Christmas decorations.

Mark Fischenich's Nov. 30 story on downtown Christmas decorations of the past seemed to strike a nostalgic chord with a lot of readers.

Some dozen plus readers commented on the story, but most were on the side of holiday decorations and against a seemingly penny pinching Scrooge of a city.

Here's a sample: (real names are not required)

From Jared Taylor: "The City of Mankato is too broke to string up Christmas lights, we have NO Sunday afternoon B.E.C. Library hours anymore; but apparently we can afford a $40 million coming levy for more spending into the Loss-Leader Civic Center. Thanks City of Mankato, Merry Christmas"

From Jason: "It's no wonder why North Mankato doesn't want to combine with Mankato. Mankato continues to go down hill and North Mankato doesn't want to get dragged along for the ride. What a shame that Mankato can't cough up enough money for Christmas lights---and they want to be a Christmas retail hub?"

From Merri Jo "I really miss those decorations, not to mention the old downtown. Just this weekend my sister and I talked about mom taking us DOWNTOWN to see them lit each year. Yes, it is very sad that Mankato no longer decorates"

From La Vone A. "Boy this is really sad. You need to come to Owatonna after the decorations here where caught up in the flood we had in Sept they are back up on the poles. Workers had to come in and clean the banners, replace the lights and what ever else had to be done. We are not a big town like Mankato but we still have the spirit and have come together to celebrate. I too remember Mankato and how nice it looked and enjoyed it. I guess I will stay in Owatonna and enjoy the holidays here"

The story mentioned how North Mankato still invests in its Christmas decorations.

To that Frank Jones commented: North Mankato 1, Mankato 0

Finally, an opposing view from Jody: "I applaud the City of Mankato. They have moved into a need vs want attitude. Christmas lights are wonderful and I enjoy them immensely, but they are expensive to purchase, put up, take down, and the electricity needed to operate them. They are only visible to the general population during the evening hours for one month. I think that classifies as a want. Perhaps the critics would like to start raising money to fund this the same as the fireworks"

 I must say cutting Christmas decorations seems like it would not be the first thing one would look at. They offer great benefit in publicity etc, for relatively little cost.

If people went through the Mankato budget, they could probably find something less popular to cut and come out all right.

There's merit in the idea of private businesses kicking in as sort of a user fee. Or maybe the city could just assess a $1 or $2 or whatever it is fee on a businesses utility bills.

Anyway, the story seems to be getting a lot of traction.