BUCKHANNON – Buckhannon City Council agreed to explore options for fall decorations on Main Street.

Mayor Robbie Skinner said he was inspired by another West Virginia town and their fall decorations during the Sept. 28 Consolidated Public Works Board meeting.

“I was in Huntington for a conference last week, and they do four-season decoration there and we do a pretty good job, but the one season we don’t really do is fall, and other communities around do some fall,” Skinner said. “I wanted to broach the subject with the board to see if we wanted to try to put some fall things up like some corn stalks maybe around the some of the poles downtown or if we wanted to use the baskets for something fall-themed or if we wanted to put some pumpkins around.”

City Public Works Director Jerry Arnold said the city has some fall decorations stored away that just have not been used in a while.

“Could we think about a scarecrow competition or something like that for the businesses? We do a decent job for Christmas, but then after Christmas, there’s a big span of time that is just winter blah,” Skinner said. “It’s just the salt and the cinders, and it’s easy to get ugly real fast because of the climate and the constant precipitation that we have, so the winter may need some additional thought, but I would kind of like to see us do something for fall.”

Board member Jack Reger said he liked the idea of additional decorations but did not want to strain the street department or city horticulturist Dixie Green.

“I don’t think it would be fair to Dixie, stretching her so thin, but a volunteer competition or something that helps businesses or groups organizations, like decorating the poles or something, would make it easy,” Reger said.

Skinner said they should reach out to members of the decorating team at Huntington for ideas and possibly implement new decorations next season.

“We’re over 1,000 feet higher in elevation than Huntington, so it is different here, but I think we could do something, and I have the contact information for them if we want to talk to them about what they do specifically for fall,” Skinner said. “We can try to use what Jerry has this year and then we’ll try to set up a couple of meetings so we can have further conversations about winter, post-Christmas and then maybe next fall.”

Board member Pam Bucklew said she would look into forming a four-season decorating committee.