Public work meets with its share of opposition. But community support does happen. For two years, local contractors have either been unequipped or too busy to assist the Town with electrical diagnostic assistance. As a rule, out of county contractors do not want to travel 300 miles round-trip and spend days without some expectation of recovering costs. Unable or unequipped to evaluate, it makes the bidding process cumbersome. When unable to produce a cost estimate on a project, funding to do repairs or replacement is extremely difficult.
I am talking about Main Street lighting.
I hope some have noticed, as of last Friday evening, the block in front of the Rivertown Building is lit up again. Thanks to a mid-week meeting of Mon-Power/First Energy personnel and the Town. I want to thank John Norman for arranging the meeting with Paul Chestnut, now a Regional Supervisor, Design Engineer Justin Arbogast, and Cody Burgess, who works as Lines Supervisor out of the Marlinton shop.
Justin returned and worked his magic on Friday. Main Street was lit up Friday evening and held over the weekend. That leaves two lamps out counting the one that was run over across from Alfredo’s. The other is in front of the State Farm office and a fix is in the making there.
Just be aware, the installation of the Main Street lamp posts happened more than 40 years ago. There remain problems that will need to be addressed as soon as possible, but for now we have lights.
Thank you, Cody – you are now on my list of heroes.
As a side note, Justin is working on cost estimates for LED lighting within the Town. If it will save on electrical costs to the Town, it needs to be considered.
The mural on the side of the Flower Garden building is now complete. The artist was able to catch a window of good weather to paint in the basic design over a previous weekend and returned last Friday and Saturday to add highlights and put on the final touches. The funding for this mural and the other on the front side of Motor Parts Building came out of the same Beautification Grant Award. Hopefully, we can be as fortunate again with the next application in Spring 2024.
Kudo’s to Laura Young and Stacy Vandevander at FRN for applying for the funding and handling the paperwork. Thanks to Delores Cutlip at the Flower Garden for providing the space, and Sam at Mitchell Chevrolet for providing the man-lift. Without these great partnerships and others, none of these little extras would be possible.
Sam
