Decorative Pedestrian Level Lighting on W Miller St

Hello Friends & Neighbors!

Here's an update on our potential new project! We got some pricing from the City on our proposed decorative lighting for Miller Street.

For those who did not attend the last neighborhood meeting, the Miller Street sidewalk project, taking the North Main neighborhood to the Parks, does not include any decorative pedestrian level lighting and we had SO hoped for this! They will be installing the conduit to provide for the lighting at a later date. It was suggested that perhaps getting the lighting is something our organization could do for ourselves. If we raised the funds, the City would purchase, install, and maintain the light fixtures. The lights are not cheap!! It looks like we might be looking at roughly $4,000.00 ~ $4,500.00 each! Ouch! And for Miller St alone we would need 6-8 per block or about 12 - 16 lights. This translates to about $80,000.00. That's a pretty ambitious fund raiser, but if the Fulton Heights neighborhood raised the funds for their Centennial Park on their own, perhaps its in our best interest to give it a try. Imagine how nice it would be to have this lighting down Miller Street to the Park! It might even set a precedent and the lighting could be continued on Jackson and up Lake Drive where the rest of the sidewalk project is planned! (By the way, we did the math for lighting that entire sidewalk project thinking we would get the Lake Dr residents involved and it comes out to be over $300,000!! - so just thought we'd concentrate on Miller St. for now!)

The City installed a recommended fixture on E. Council St. between Main and Long Streets so if you are out and about you can go by and see what they look like. They are also installed in the county-owned parking lot at Kerr and N. Main. The difference between regular street lights is that street lighting is much higher and intended to light the traffic way, not the sidewalks. The pedestrian level lighting is 12' high, spaced closer together, and usually far more attractive.

Our proposed Home & Garden Tour, Spring 2010, may be the perfect kick-off event for this. We can look into donations from other organizations too. If anyone is particularly talented at fund-raisers, grant-writing, or down-right begging - now is your chance to shine! Contact us here by commenting after this post, or email to oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com.

You can also share your ideas and comments at the next Old North Salisbury Meeting, scheduled for Thursday August 27th at 7:00PM at 910 N. Main St. We hope to see you there!