Holiday Lights Saved After Threat To Season In Forest Hills

FOREST HILLS – The twinkle of holiday lights will bring joy to downtown Forest Hills for yet another season – a week after organizers said they'd have to pull the plug on the decades-old tradition because of a lack of funds.

City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz announced Wednesday that she's found the money needed to power the snowflake-shaped lights along Austin Street and Continental Avenue. The Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce had said earlier November that the holiday lights would have to go dark this year after annual donations from business and property owners that had funded them for more than 30 years dried up.

“Many people have read that we won’t have holiday lights this year,” Koslowitz said at the Community Board 6 meeting Monday evening. “Well that’s wrong – we are.”

Koslowitz represents the city council's 29th district, which includes Forest Hills, Forest Park, Kew Gardens, Rego Park and Richmond Hill. She said after hearing the holiday lights would go dark, she reached out to Tiebreaker Productions, the concert promoters at Forest Hills Stadium, to see if they could help foot the bill.

The company has funds set aside for keeping streets near the stadium clean as a way to give back to the community, she said.

“It’s holiday time, it’s festive, we’ve had it for years, and they of course said yes,” Koslowitz said.

Koslowitz told Patch she secured $9,100 and that would cover the entire cost of the lights, despite initial estimates being around $15,000.

“It’s a tradition of the area and I thought it was important that it be continued,” she said.

Lead image by Danielle Woodward/Patch