A second proposal to light soccer fields at Caledonia’s Ola J. Pickett Park failed to gain traction among the town’s board of aldermen Tuesday evening, even as the window for installing the lights before the planned beginning of the soccer season narrows.
“We’re behind the eight-ball already,” Mayor Mitch Wiggins told the aldermen after an hour-long debate over the revised plan. “If we can go full-speed ahead right now and approve this, we can put it out (for bids) right now.”
The plan presented Tuesday came after the aldermen balked at the original plan produced by the town’s engineering firm, Calvert-Spradling Engineering, on April 22. It estimated the cost of lighting one field at $165,000, with the cost for lighting the other three fields at $100,000 each — using LED lights. With only $175,000 available for the project, aldermen asked the engineer to come up with a cheaper option to light at least two fields.
The revised plan presented Tuesday estimated that the $175,000 available would cover the cost of lighting two fields and possibly all four.
The primary difference in the two plans was using wooden poles instead of concrete poles and metal-halide lights instead of LED.
Giving up the LED lights appeared to be a deal-breaker for the board.
“I know how important it is to get the lights up before the season starts, but I really am struggling with this,” Alderman Matt Furnari said. “We’re going to get one shot at this. Is using 50-year-old technology going to put us where we want to be? I doubt it.
“I’ve talked to people who do lighting every day,” he added. “They read about this in the paper, just like everybody else in Lowndes County, and they were very shocked that we couldn’t get LED on all four of those fields for the money we had. I still feel like we can get LED lighting for two fields, which is what we asked for last month. I would recommend we go back to the engineers and ask them to see if there’s a way we can do that.”
According to the spec in the non-LED plan, the lights at the two large fields would cost a combined $122,000, leaving $53,000 for the remainder of the project.
Alderman Quinn Parham said while he agreed LED lighting would be preferable, the practical realities of the available money, along with the urgency required to have lights in place by the start of the soccer season, was enough to warrant approving the less expensive option.
“The question is what do we want,” he said. “I think we should proceed with the plan we’ve been given. Under the circumstances, this is our best option on the table.”
Parham moved to accept the new plan, but he did not receive a second.
Wiggins asked the board what they wanted to do next.
Furnari said the engineers should submit another option that would include LED lighting.
Wiggins said he would be in contact with the engineers Wednesday morning to make that request.
“Once we get that, we’ll have a special call meeting to decide this,” Wiggins said. “We have to move on this very quickly. Time is running out.”
The project is estimated to take 90 days to complete – 30 days for the bid process, followed by a 60-day construction window. There are 116 days until Sept. 1, including weekends and holidays.
In other business, the board authorized the purchase of a new patrol vehicle for the towns marshal’s office. Kelvin Burdine presented two options for the board to consider — a 2020 Ford Explorer and a 2019 Chevy Tahoe. Burdine recommended the town purchase the Tahoe, which was listed with a state-contract price of $31,400, about $3,000 chapter than the Explorer. Burdine said he could fit the Tahoe with needed equipment — cages, lights and radio — for roughly the amount of the difference in the price of the two vehicles. Aldermen are also seeking quotes for financing the vehicle. Last August, the board voted to budget one-third of the cost for a new patrol vehicle for three consecutive years.
The board also approved a summer jobs program for the Caledonia Water Department for up to three jobs, which will provide 10 weeks of full-time employment at $10 per hour. Applicants must be 18 to qualify and should call the town hall at 662-356-4117 for more information.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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