Street light installation begins in Dennison
DENNISON (WJER) (March 2, 2023) – Excavation is continuing for the new street lights that will be going up around downtown.
Mayor Greg DiDonato says AEP subcontractors arrived last week to dig up the concrete around the installation sites for the two dozen LED lights that will be going in along Grant, North Second, and Third streets.
“They have another company who’s coming in, and they’re doing all of the underground augering to run the conduit to run all the wires through, and then there will be another company who will actually install the lights then.
The village paid around $75,000 for the poles, which DiDonato says are 19 feet high with decorative tops and arms for hanging decorations. AEP is installing them at a reduced cost as part of a pilot program where it buys outdated street lights, puts in new energy-efficient ones and leases them back to communities.
“We paid them $122,000, which probably is only half or a third of what it would cost if a community would have had to put them in completely themselves. Most downtown revitalizations the community pretty well takes care of all of those costs.”
Officials are using money the village received under the American Rescue Plan to fund the project. DiDonato doesn’t anticipate the new lights being ready to turn on for a couple more months, which is how long the contractor says it could take to run the conduit and get them hooked up.