The City of Plymouth is hoping to preserve some of the historic street lighting on the city’s east side.
The six brick lighting pillars located at street corners in the Lincoln Park area were discussed during last week’s Board of Works meeting. They’re believed to date back to around the 1930s.
Now, board member Mike Delp says many of them are leaning significantly and are in need of repairs. He says he’s gotten some initial estimates from various contractors.
According to the bids received so far, Delp says it would cost a total of about $3,800 to repair the masonry and another $1,700 per pillar for the actual leveling work. “Assuming we had to do all six or that we wanted to do all six, when I add everything up: six times $1,700, plus the brickwork, plus some sidewalk replacement, it seems to me we’re going to be somewhere in that $16,000-to-$20,000 range to get those pillars back and leveled up,” he said.
That would be about the same cost as replacing the pillars with decorative streetlights already owned by the city, according to Delp. However, the estimates for repairing the pillars do not include restoring their back-lit street signs.
The Plymouth Board of Works voted last week to proceed with the process of repairing the pillars. The next step will be finding funds for the work in the city’s budget, as well as looking into potential grant funding. Grants may be available due to some of the pillars’ location on the historic Lincoln Highway.
Once funding arrangements are made, a formal bid process will take place to select a contractor to complete the work.
