Following a presentation from Robb Steiner, vice president of Steiner Electric, Inc. in West Bend the Downtown West Bend BID board voted unanimously to spend $16, 213 to replace the lights bordering the buildings on Main Street.
According to Steiner this will be a six-day project and cover up to 6,000 lights.
A couple other details that came out during the discussion:
- Steiner will have the lights installed at night so as to not interrupt downtown parking.
- Each bulb costs about 87 cents
- Kevin and Amy Zimmer have purchased lights for the West Bend Theatre marquee and Steiner’s crew will install those as well – since they already have the articulating lift, what the heck – it just makes sense.
- These will be incandescent lights. The BID looked at LED lights and the final total came back over $100,000
- A plastic strip that holds the sections of lights is going to be replaced with an aluminum strip.
- Work to replace the lights is likely to begin in May.
Also during the meeting Shirley Decker, executive director with Roots & Branches, made a presentation about plants for Old Settlers’ Park and how they plan on spiffing up the downtown with plants this year. She said one of the biggest drains on the budget is the watering. (#punintended)
Decker said Roots & Branches will work with some of the businesses downtown including Tennies Ace Hardware, Husar’s House of Fine Diamonds and Larry and Chris Porter on the water supply. She also said volunteers would be used to follow through with the watering.
Decker dubbed this a “transition year” as the hope is the volunteers will be able to put some pretty into the downtown and save taxpayers money.
The BID approved her $6,200 request for funding.