Celebrate! Annville hopes to make Holiday Parade of Lights an annual event

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

Celebrate! Annville has proposed creation of a Holiday Parade of Lights, tentatively planned for the Saturday evening prior to Thanksgiving this year.

The Holiday Parade Subcommittee of Celebrate! Annville’s proposal for a parade to kick off the holiday season Tuesday came before the Annville Township Board of Supervisors in the form of a four-page request. The proposed parade route would use Maple Street to minimize disruption to the U.S. Route 422 corridor and accommodate the township’s “current traffic realities.”

Celebrate! Annville is asking for temporary road closure, barricades, and route safety measures, temporary parking restrictions along the route, coordinated public safety, and permission for amplified sound and music.

The request’s careful, tentative wording allows for the board to make adjustments to the proposed parade’s schedule and format. To that end, township manager Candie Johnson asked the board for more conversation about the proposal before granting approval.

The proposed parade would be on the same day as Lebanon city’s annual holiday parade – Nov. 21 this year – said township solicitor Megan Ryland-Tanner. Celebrate! Annville’s proposal leaves time for parade-goers to attend the first Annville Holiday Parade of Lights after attending the Lebanon Holiday Parade earlier that Saturday.

If approved as-is, the Holiday Parade of Lights would begin about 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, and conclude around 7 p.m., allowing the route to reopen by about 8 p.m., according to a packet provided to the board.

In its request to the board, the parade subcommittee says it expects 30 to 40 entries or participating groups and about 500 spectators in its first year, and “hopes the Annville Holiday Parade of Lights becomes a sustainable annual tradition that continues to grow through community participation, volunteer involvement and local partnerships.”

Formed in the autumn of 2023 as a subcommittee of Friends of Old Annville, a nonprofit promoting the preservation and adaptive use of historic buildings in the township, Celebrate! Annville hopes to draw participants such as local marching bands, emergency services, churches and nonprofit organizations, scout troops and youth organizations, community groups, local businesses, decorated floats and vehicles, holiday-themed walking groups, and participants dressed up like Santa Claus.

“A featured community element currently under consideration is a holiday-themed Santa costume showcase encouraging creative and family-friendly participants,” the proposal reads.

The parade would be staged near the Annville-Cleona Community Pool and finish near the Lebanon Valley College campus, “with any potential post-event activities remaining subject to future partnership discussions and approvals.”

In other business:

• The township is doing better with tax collections this year compared to previous years in which Johnson has served as manager, she told the board.
• A homeowner’s tall SUV parked near the intersection of Route 422 and Weaber Street blocks the view of oncoming traffic, Fieldon Daubert, son of board supervisor Scott Daubert, told the board. Johnson said the township is aware of the safety issue and will consult with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Local Technical Assistance Program to study the problem.
• Electric-powered bikes and e-scooters are creating traffic safety problems in the Annville-Cleona area, resident Rich Williams wrote in a letter to Johnson, the Annville board, Cleona Mayor Matt Zechman and Cleona Borough Council. How to maintain safety with an increasing number of e-bikes and e-scooters in the area has become a growing concern discussed between the township board and Western Lebanon County Regional Police Chief Andrew Winters in recent months.
• Board voted 5-0 in each of three motions to accept the resignations of Rich Raiders from the Alternate Zoning Hearing Board, Laura Charelian from the Zoning Hearing Board, and Rick Wherley from the Historical Architectural Review Board. Raiders and Charelian both have moved out of the township. Wherley stepped down from HARB for health reasons.
• Board voted 5-0 to approve the township’s 2027 budget preparation and adoption schedule. Commissioners will vote on tentative budget adoption on Oct. 13. A second budget meeting, if necessary, will be Oct. 27. A budget hearing will be held on Nov. 4 and adoption of the final 2027 township budget, tax and appropriations ordinance, and if necessary, sewer rate and/or trash rate ordinance will be Dec. 1.

• June 2 was Les Powell’s 40^th anniversary with the township’s Department of Public Works, which supervisors marked with a commemorative outdoor banner. Powell told LebTown he has been supervisor of the Annville Township DPW for the last 15 or 20 of those 40 years.