Holiday Lights Fund Needs Leadership

What do Stephan Hay, Andre Ravenelle, David Streb and Stephen DiNatale (and, soon, Lisa Wong) have in common?

They are the only public officials who have donated to the city's holiday lights fund.

According to the list received yesterday afternoon, those four named above all contributed to the fund. Wong said yesterday she has written a check and someone from her office is dropping it off soon.

Interestingly, Wong said she wrote a check from her personal account, not her campaign account. Presumably, Ravenelle and Streb did the same (they don't have campaign accounts, obviously). I don't know if Hay and DiNatale ponied up from the cookie jar at home, or from their campaign accounts.

But here's the thing, every elected official in the city has a campaign account. Some of them might be depleted after the election, but chances are most of them have $50 bucks left in the campaign's spare change jar (which not only is a nice donation, but also gets a free message in the Fitchburg Pride. How can you pass that up?).

I'm loathe to get too much on my soapbox -- it's their money and all -- but it's worth noting the lack of attention this fund is getting from the city's leaders. As of yesterday, the fund is at about $3,500 (up from $2,500 last week, and not counting Wong's donation), and still has to get to $5,000 before the end of the season. Consider this: If the 10 other current city councilors and the three new councilors threw in $50 each, that's $650 bucks, almost half of what's left to go. And that doesn't include current Mayor Dan Mylott, the School Committee, and other officials.

Elected officials use their campaign accounts all the time for advertising in Little League programs and donating to charitable events. The holiday fund is certainly a legal destination for a donation, and is there a better one for the good of the city right now? The city was forced to gut the budget for holiday lights in the summer, but there's no reason why they can't help make the difference now.