By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Snow or not, the tradition of the Niles Dial-A-Ride Tour of Holiday Lights went on.
The one-hour tour put on with the help of the City of Niles was offered Monday and Tuesday at 6 p.m. for no cost. Two to three Dial-A-Rides shuttled dozens of viewers around Niles and Niles Township.
"We get on the bus and turn on the Christmas music and we ride around and they oooh and aaah and enjoy it," said Suzie Hodgemire, a Niles dispatcher for Dial-A-Ride.
Hodgemire said fellow Dial-A-Ride dispatcher Kathy Johnson drove around the area in her spare time and found the most decorated areas and made out her own route she thought people would enjoy. Johnson's work turned into a one-hour tour of the biggest and brightest holiday light displays in town, and the first stop was no disappointment.
Neighbors Walt Jackson and Corey McBain used their adjoining properties on South 13th Street to create one giant holiday light display. They guessed tens of thousands of strings of lights were covering each of their yards.
"There's a boat load of extension cords," McBain said.
The display included mechanical Santas and reindeer, and even featured blinking and flashing lights synchronized with holiday music. Plus, the neighbors' children, Chelsea McBain and Marc Russell, took turns dressing up as Santa, waving jingle bells at cars and handing out candy canes.