Bill Collins has been lighting up Platte City in many different ways for 17 years.
His commitment to stringing Christmas lights on the buildings downtown has not only given the town a festive holiday flair, it’s also given local residents true Christmas spirit and joy.
When he began more than a decade and half ago, only three buildings were decorated with lights downtown, including the Courthouse. He became inspired to light up all the buildings for Christmas.
The Platte City Main Street Association made a plan to light more buildings in 2006 and they asked Collins if he would be on the lighting committee and although he didn’t have a complete understanding of what that meant, he was very excited to be a part of the endeavor to brighten the downtown area for Christmas.
In 2007, Collins who learned all about electrical wiring from his electrician dad, completely took over the lighting, except for a few businesses who do their own. His hope was to ensure that every building was ablaze with lights and he began speaking with each business owner about mounting permanent strings of light on the downtown buildings. He not only got the needed lights and materials needed, he also did the labor-intensive light mounting on the buildings. More than 2,000 lights on new, upgraded strings have been put up.
After all these years, Collins is still dedicated to putting up lights and replacing burned out bulbs.
Major challenges in his work come from the fact that he needs a lift truck to work from.
Most of the downtown businesses coordinate with him for the lighting and give him permission to put up the lights. “They help as needed and drill holes for anchors to hang the strings on,” Collins said.
One of the initial concerns of business owners was that the lights and setup would be expensive, but Collins assured them that he would get the strings of lights wholesale and they would only pay for the amount of feet needed to cover their building, and his labor would be free.
It takes him about one day with a lift to check for, and replace burned out bulbs with help from former Central Platte Fire Department Chief Larry Bigus. For many years Collins and Bigus changed bad bulbs and put up new light strings and did repairs as needed.
Each year Collins, who is 84, has to replace about 150 bulbs. “Building owners paid for the initial bulbs and cords,” Collins said. “We do all the replacements for free.”
This year, Collins’ loyal assistants were: Andrew Sallee, Scott Foutch, Jacob Blankenship, Susan Baker, Bethany Kolb, Farmer’s House, Jackie Halloran, Spencer McMillan, Brandi Moritz, Linda and Jim Pangborn, Andrew Dykes and the Central Platte Fire Department.
Members of the community have been a big help in assisting Collins over the years. And the Platte City Area Chamber of Commerce helps with receipts. The Chamber named Collins Mr. Platte City for all that he has done for the community. Many in the community call Collins Mr. Christmas Light.
For Collins, the most rewarding part of putting the lights up for community members to enjoy each year is seeing the festive Christmas look of all the buildings bright and shining.