Holiday whiteout : Downtown Bentonville will step up its holiday look this year with white LED lights throughout.

ROGERS — There's going to be a whiteout on the downtown Bentonville Square this holiday season whether snowflakes fall or not.

Recently, the Bentonville Advertising and Planning Commission approved a request by the Bentonville Parks Department for $15,000 to replace the holiday lights in the heart of the downtown area with all-white LED lights. These new lights will replace the ones that have framed the buildings, trees and more in and around the downtown Bentonville Square for the past several holiday seasons.

"This started with us wanting to clean up our design and make the lights around thedowntown more of an attraction during the holidays," Parks Manager David Wright said. "When you go to the trouble and expense of redoing something, you want to do it right. It's going to look great and consistent throughout, and with LED lighting, we'll be using less power and become a little greener in the process."

Downtown Bentonville has been lit up during the holidays for years, and while many of the lights have been white, color strings have also found their way into the mix. Wright said the white LED lights have been ordered, and a city crew will begin to install them sometime in October. The stringing of the lights will take aperiod of five to six weeks, Wright said.

The plans call for lights on the sections of Central Avenue and other main corridors close to the core of downtown Bentonville, as well as the Square itself.

Plans are being discussed to cover the trees on the Square with the LED bulbs, but that will depend on how far the city is able to stretch the $15,000 allotted. As part of this holiday enhancementeffort, Wright said the focus will be much more on lights and less on props, signs and other holiday decorations that have been erected in the past.

"The new lights are really going to enhance the whole experience and beautify the area," Wright said. "In the future, we do see the lights expanding further through the downtown area. For example, the outdoor skating rink project is about to get under way. When that's done, that would seem to be a natural for this. But we're probably looking at 2010 for that."

Expect the core of downtown to be lit up bright and white by mid to late November.