Palmerton committee plans to expand holiday display

The blue and white snowflakes adorning Palmerton’s Delaware Avenue every winter are a familiar sight for people who consider the borough a part of their holiday traditions.

Whether they live in Palmerton or just stop in for its annual Christmas in the Park event, many seek out the borough’s holiday sights in December: the snowflake lights, the 100-odd decorated trees scattered in the park, the colorful lights strung across the street.

Each spectacle, including Christmas in the Park, is made possible thanks to the Palmerton Holiday Lighting Committee, founded and chaired by Joe Federanich.

Come this December, Joe is hoping to add yet another display to the borough’s holiday wonder.

The Palmerton Holiday Lighting Committee is currently working on making Joe’s latest idea a reality. It’s in the process of designing two lighted four-car trains to sit on the Chestnut Ridge Railroad trestle suspended across Delaware Avenue. The trains will include New Jersey Zinc engines, box cars and Chestnut Ridge cabooses.

“I laughed at him when he said it, at first,” Marj Federanich, Joe’s wife, said of her husband’s idea. “Now, I think it’s going to look great.”

The committee has enlisted the help of Todd Merkel, a local mechanic who hand makes, programs and puts on his own holiday light show at his Palmerton home. But Joe said it still needs help funding the project, which carries a $15,000 price tag.

If the committee raises that much, it can place trains on each side of the bridge, so visitors can catch a glimpse upon entering and exiting Palmerton. Joe said it has already applied for a grant from Horsehead Corporation and will continue to look for other funding sources.

“This is just something we want to do to continue to improve the town, to make it better,” Joe Federanich said.

If you want to help the committee in its bid to add trains to Palmerton’s holiday decorations, donations can be addressed to the Palmerton Holiday Lighting Committee at 410 Delaware Ave.