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The lights are back on along Downtown's Fifth Avenue.

City officials on Thursday also showed off the new holiday banners that will decorate the newly installed 19th century-style streetlamps.

The banners --- like the new parking meters on Fifth Avenue --- were paid for by the Downtown Business Authority, said Dennis Pittman, city administrator.

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They'll greet marching bands, dance teams and other participants in the city's annual Salute to Santa parade. One of the largest in Western Pennsylvania, the parade begins at 12 noon at the Palisades, Fifth Avenue and Water Street.

City electrician Tom Rosso said other new holiday decorations have been ordered, but were not available before the parade. The old decorations would not fit the new streetlamps, he said.

The lamps --- part of a million-dollar renovation of Fifth Avenue paid for by the state's Home Town Streets program --- are filled with high-pressure gas and metal halide salts, and are designed to produce a whiter, brighter light.

"They're the type of lamps recommended for retail districts," Rosso said.

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Also installed are new planters and waste baskets. Fifth Avenue has also been widened and is scheduled to revert to two-way traffic for the first time in more than 40 years. But Pittman said the conversion can't happen until new traffic signals are installed at the corners of Fifth and Walnut and Fifth and Market.

The traffic signals will be tied into the signals on Lysle Boulevard, Rosso said.

Although the signal at Fifth and Walnut is expected before the end of this year, the one at Market will be delayed, he said.

State Sen. Jim Brewster, city Democrat, said the project --- designed to breathe some life into the moribund Fifth Avenue business district --- could not have gone forward without the assistance of the business authority and Bethany Budd Bauer, the city's community development director.

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Santa Parade, Luncheon Slated: KDKA-TV personalities Brenda Waters and Jon Burnett, and Brooks Broadhurst and Bill Bates of Eat 'n Park, will be the headline attractions at the city's annual "Salute to Santa Parade."

City officials have said Broadhurst and Bates were instrumental in retaining the Eat 'n Park on Lysle Boulevard, Downtown.

Before the start of the parade at 12 p.m. tomorrow, visitors are invited to have coffee and refreshments at the Palisades, said Dorothy Kuharski, parade coordinator.

A free Christmas luncheon at the Palisades will follow the parade, Kuharski said.

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Also This Weekend: McKeesport Little Theater presents Frederick Knott's "Wait Until Dark" through Sunday. A blind girl is terrorized in her apartment by three thugs searching for a doll stuffed with heroin.

Twists and turns drive the plot as the victim tries to outwit her tormentors. Showtimes are 8 p.m. tonight at 2 p.m. Sunday. Call (412) 673-1100 or visit the MLT website for details. The Little Theater is located at 1614 Coursin St., near the Carnegie Library.

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