Enfield Town Board decorates community for holidays

On Dec. 12, Enfield’s Town Board will hold a Deck The Halls event from 2 to 5 p.m. to decorate the town and celebrate the holidays.

This year is the first for this event in Enfield. Stephanie Redmond, supervisor for the town of Enfield, brought up the idea for Deck the Halls at the Nov. 10 Town Board meeting in the hopes that it will bring Enfield together.

“I think it’s just healthy for our community to sort of have these community events where we do some projects together and enjoy celebrating our town together,” Redmond said.

The event will involve decorating town buildings with greenery and lights. It will serve attendees coffee, cider, donuts and chili and allow attendees the opportunity to make crafts or visit Santa Claus at the Enfield Community Center. Despite being a holiday event, Deck the Halls is not a religious event.

“I think it’s important for the Town Board to be very inclusive of all religions or nonreligions,” Redmond said. “And therefore, I wanted to make it clear that this is strictly to decorate our Town Hall in the spirit of winter and getting together as a community and gathering together instead of making it a specific denomination or something like that [that] might deter some folks from coming. I just wanted a very inclusive event.”

Deck the Halls had originally been scheduled for the morning of Dec. 4 but was moved to 2 p.m. that afternoon and later moved to Dec. 12 because of scheduling conflicts with the organizations involved.

The Town Board members will participate in the event together but are not allowed to discuss politics while there. Under the Open Meetings Law, any discussion of politics between three or more of the five board members, which amounts to a quorum, must be held in public and recorded.

“If it’s just getting to know your neighbors, that’s fine,” Redmond said. “But as board members, if you have more than three of us together, we cannot discuss matters affecting votes that would happen within the town board.”

The Enfield Community Council helped the Town Board organize the Deck the Halls event. The money to pay for the event will come from the town’s celebration and beautification lines of funding, which have $2,000 and $2,500 available, respectively, which Redmond said would be more than enough to pay for the expenses related to Deck the Halls.

Redmond said the decorations will stay up until near the end of winter when the weather warms up in early spring, and the exact date will depend on the weather. She said the timing is due to not wanting to leave them up too long or to have to take them down at an inconvenient time.

“We certainly don’t want to go out in a blizzard and take them down, but at the same time, we don’t want them going through the summer, either,” she said.

Redmond said Deck The Halls may continue in following years and become a regular event if residents are interested enough, and later years’ events might feature music and other attractions. She said this would depend on whether people have time to attend.

“People get busy,” Redmond said. “And we’ll have to see. If this is something that’s important to our community, then I’d like to see it continue.”

Redmond said she is looking forward to seeing the community come together for the event.

“I just hope people come out and join us and have a good time with us,” Redmond said.

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