Snowflakes to Fly in Doylestown

Snowflakes are about to fly in Doylestown.

No, it's not the weather forecast.

It's the annual borough holiday decorating effort, led by the Doylestown Business and Community Alliance. The nonprofit group promotes the community through various events such as the annual Doylestown Arts Festival. In warmer weather, the group decorates the borough's streetlamps with flower baskets.

The group needs volunteers to gather in the heart of town and help hoist the snowflake decorations into place on the borough's lampposts Saturday morning.

Volunteers should meet at State and Main in front of Starbucks at 9 a.m. on Saturday. If you have an electric drill with an 8mm socket and extension, or an electric screwdriver or a flathead screwdriver please bring them, along with a 6-foot ladder, if you have one.

As usual, coffee and donuts will be provided.

If the weather doesn't cooperate, the rain date will be Saturday, Nov. 19.

If you can't help out on Saturday, volunteers also are needed on Friday evening to help unload the snowflakes from the DBCA trailer, test the bulbs and load the decorations onto a borough trailer. Meet at the borough public works yard at the end of Harvey Avenue at 6 pm.

Last winter was the first year the new batch of LED-lighted, steel-framed snowflakes were used, and they performed well, officials said.

Doylestown's previous snowflake decorations lasted only about two years. Problems arose when the flakes' individual, incandescent white lights started burning out. One burned-out bulb would cause the whole strand to malfunction.

Last year, borough council and the DBCA partnered to buy the new batch of snowflake decorations for $63,000 from Rileighs Outdoor Decor of Bethlehem.