This week’s Mayor’s Corner is to let you know that 2024 is off to an exciting start in Marlinton. January required some snow-plowing for the first time in a couple of winters.
Already, plans are in progress for 2024 First Fridays at Discovery Junction and other events, including extra musical and car-show events.
A meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, with Destination by Design, to discuss concepts and ideas about the Streetscapes project. Through the Town’s connection with the Mon-Forest Town Partnership, Sara Cottingham, of Downstream Strategies, achieved a $30,000 grant from Partner Community Capital. This grant funding will allow the Town to develop a streetscape plan for sidewalks, lighting and aesthetics for downtown Marlinton. The Town is not required to provide any matching funds for this grant.
The Street Lighting Upgrades to LED is in progress. When our local power company crew receives the proper change orders, they will begin to install the newer lighting as they have time. The new Cobra-head LED streetlights available from Mon Power, will provide the Town a modest savings in electricity costs each month. The Town will identify locations where more or less wattage could be used. These newer lamps will replace the high-pressure sodium lights and will be mounted on the existing poles at no cost to the Town.
The newer lights are designed to direct light downward and will not interfere with the “Dark Skies” initiative. Currently, the electricity cost for each high- pressure sodium light is $8.80 per month. The LED lights would cost $6.91 per 50-watt lamp, and $8.51 per month per 90-watt lamp.
Ending on a sour note, and after many months of filing paperwork to be included in the State’s Opioid Settlement, a payment of $604.55 was a disappointment to say the least. Following talk of more than a billion dollars coming into our state, it was easy to imagine at least a few thousand dollars to smaller communities. Obviously, that did not happen.
