The light show was a one-man idea, cooked up by Don Williams to decorate his yard on Lake Myra Road.

It has since become almost a neighborhood project that involves several residents along the narrow country road.

More importantly for the town of Wendell, perhaps, is the fact that it has become a destination event.

Every year, people drive to Lake Myra Road just to see the lights. It is easy to see benefits of this economic development opportunity for Wendell.

And, now, the town has the opportunity to be the host for the event as Williams and his friends seek a better venue for people to view their spectacle.

Williams wants to relocate the light show to Wendell community park. Town commissioners like the idea of hosting the event, which runs roughly from Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve. But several of them prefer a site at the J. Ashley Wall Towne Square as a way to entice more visitors to come see downtown.

Both ideas have merit: The Community Park site would allow the light show organizers plenty of space to create the spectacular show. But it would require some tight logistical planning to provide the physical resources the light show designers would need. And it would cause traffic problems as parents attending basketball games in the community center battle for space to park for a game.

The town square gives the town a much better opportunity to get people into downtown. Savvy merchants can benefit by extending their hours. That would make their goods and services are available to those who venture into downtown to see the show. But the site is too small - by two-thirds according to Williams - to host the entire display.

Town leaders have some time to figure this out. Williams has already opened this year's show in its original location on Lake Myra Road.

But the best decision seems to be to host the event at the community center. There is ample parking and by hosting the show there, visitors can see the full spectrum of lights and sounds. And that's what makes the Lake Myra light show so appealing.

And, for many of those businesses in downtown, bringing a big crowd of people from the community park into downtown is manageable. If you don't think so, just consider the number of children at this spring's Public Safety Day event who sported their team's uniforms. Moms and Dads had invested their time into the ballgame and they chose to take advantage of the other offerings Wendell provided that day.

The same kind of boomerang effect could happen next year for downtown Wendell even if the light show is a few blocks away.