Harrodsburg Road may be the most festive thoroughfare in Fayette County. It is surely a coincidence, but a drive from downtown on South Broadway (which becomes Harrodsburg) to Man o' War includes at least two impressive light displays, one directly across from Turfland Mall and a second outside of New Circle Road just past Beaumont.
If you travel Harrodsburg Road with any regularity, you probably know exactly which landmarks I am referring to, but if you aren't a regular down that direction, you should make a point to head that way this season.
The display at 2104 Harrodsburg Road, across from the mall, is a small, single-family endeavor. They have cordoned off their front yard with lights, and set various holiday figures throughout, including an animated snow globe, Santa, and Christmas trees.
Further down the way is a much more ambitious display, but considering it is the work of about 30 firefighters over a two-month period, its complexity is understandable. Men who make a living climbing in and out of large trucks and various structures are pretty adept at stringing lights along a roofline.
Lexington Fire Station #20 first treated the community to a combined light and music display last year, but this year they have expanded their offerings to four separate choreographed shows with a total of 12 songs.
Lt. Keith Dean, a south side resident, is one of the initiators of the project, said it started after some fellow firefighters saw a video of a man in Ohio who had synchronized the lights on his home to music. The station had been lighted for the holidays before, but never in tandem with song.
"We saw that and really did some investigating to figure out how we could do that," said Dean. They ended up on the phone with Animated Lighting, a Missouri-based company that gave the guys a price break on some of the equipment. They still had to purchase all the lights, a control board, and enlisted firefighter Emmitt Gabbard to handle the computer programming required to make it run. Dean couldn't put a number on the cost, but thought it might be between $1,000 and $5,000, all coming from the firefighters at station #20.
"It started off as this would be really cool to show people thanks for the help they give us for the toy program," said Dean. "It's a fun thing we can all pitch in and do together that we wouldn't be able to do ourselves at home.
The firefighter toy program takes place Dec. 15