Cookeville will soon replace street lights across the Courthouse Square due to old age and fading paint.
Energy Department Director Carl Haney said the decorative lights around the square and on surrounding streets have been in place for nearly thirty years. Haney said the current lights are twelve feet tall while the new ones will reach up to fourteen feet.
“It gets the light a little bit higher, which distributes it out a little bit better,” Haney said. “And it gets the banner arms a little higher so they’re not hanging out over the sidewalk where people can grab them or anything else and it just helps that part of it as well.”
Haney said replacing the lights will also help keep the area aesthetically pleasing. Haney said his department will install the lights over the next six months as time permits between more urgent projects.
“We’ll look at what’s left after that and place another order if need be and get some more put in,” Haney said.
City Council approved a purchase for twenty-four light poles at its most recent meeting. Haney said he hopes the new lighting will help pedestrians by providing more light for both sidewalks and crosswalks in the area.
“Obviously keeping people’s power on but also getting the new residents’ and businesses’ power is our first priority with that so we can keep that going,” Haney said. “And then as we can we’ll work these lights in and getting them changed out.”
Haney said the old poles will get repainted and reused as security lights as needed throughout the city.
“We look at both painting them in place or replacing them and seeing which one’s most beneficial to the city,” Haney said. “And that’s really, we just keep an eye on them and see when that paint starts fading or they start getting deteriorated and we decide then that it’s time to replace them.”
