Foster Senn Contributing Columnist
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Foster-Senn.jpgFoster Senn Contributing Columnist

The holiday season gets an exciting start downtown tonight with the Main Street Lights celebration. There will be choirs, street musicians, a free movie at the Ritz, and we’ll light the Christmas tree at 6:30 p.m. WIS’s Ben Tanner will broadcast live from downtown. It will be a fun evening.

Thanks to all who contributed to Main Street Lights, to Sandy Scherrens for leading this year’s campaign, and to Austin Willingham of Willingham & Son’s for transporting the tree.

Downtown will be an exciting place throughout the Christmas season, including “Snowfall Nights” every Friday night at Memorial Park and Santa Claus will be downtown the evenings of Dec. 4, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18. The Opera House has a full slate of shows through Christmas. I attended an outstanding show Friday night, Flashdance, and was impressed with the full house and the great mixture of locals and out-of-towners attending.

The local economy continues to move along, such as a September unemployment rate for Newberry County of 5.1 percent, the fourth lowest in the state. Thank you for shopping and dining in Newberry. We’re pleased to have several business openings.

Gina Marie’s restaurant will open in the old Main Street Bakery in early December, and the newly-built Pour Richard’s bar will open soon. Also downtown, As Time Goes By antique store has doubled its size, taking over all of the old Turner’s Jewelry. J&J Auctions has moved to the Mower Building. At Newberry Plaza, Badcock Home Furnishings and More opened last week.

The city continues work on several projects. The water and sewer project in the Mollohon neighborhood should be complete within the next month. The large, new clear well at the water plant on the Saluda River is taking shape and will be complete in early 2016. And site preparation work continues for the improvements at Gallman Park.

As we look toward Thanksgiving, we have many blessings to be thankful for. We were fortunate not to have much flood damage in Newberry, and I’ve been very impressed how Newberrians and South Carolinians have responded with aid their fellow South Carolinians. Efforts are still underway, including a new program initiated by Gov. Nikki Haley, One SC.

The Newberry National Guard, both the 1050 Transportation headquarters battalion and the 751, were deployed for flood relief. Among its work, the 1050 directed the delivery of 550,000 sandbags and 5,700 one-ton sandbags throughout South Carolina. We continue to be proud of and thankful for all our military.

I hope you have a very nice Thanksgiving. Following are dates of upcoming events.

• Main Street Lights — Nov. 20

• Shop Small Saturday — Nov. 28. Encouraging people throughout the United States to support small businesses.

• Community Choir concert — Dec. 4-Dec. 6

• Newberry Christmas Parade — Dec. 5 at 4 p.m., sponsored by the Jaycees

Foster Senn is the mayor of the City of Newberry. Contact him at FSenn@cityofnewberry.com