Downtown is a much brighter place these days.

Not only are strings of lights winding their way from Columbus Light and Water up Fifth Street, but lights are also cropping up along the rooflines of buildings between Catfish Alley and City Hall.

What people might not know is that those things spring from two separate projects: One from Columbus Light and Water, and one from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau and Main Street.

CLW General Manager Angela Verdell told The Dispatch she noticed that Fifth Street was dark at night and wanted to do something about that.

“I was at work one night and it was really dark (along Fifth Street),” she said. “I seldom saw people out and about, and I thought lights would be a way to encourage people to come out at night, and maybe create some sense of security and sense of community.”

She hatched a plan to string lights above Fifth Street, from the CLW office at Fourth Avenue South and Fifth Street South up to the area of the Magnolia Bowl.

“The lights on Fifth came first,” Verdell said. “When we reached out to (CVB CEO Nancy Carpenter and Main Street Columbus Director Barbara Bigelow) about our plans, they told us about their project and explained what their plan was. We all worked together to make it happen.”

Carpenter said the building lights were intended to bring out the skyline along Main Street.

“Our office wanted to illuminate the outline of the buildings along Main Street,” Carpenter said. “We wanted to show the unique style of the different buildings downtown.”

Carpenter, working with Bigelow and the city of Columbus, asked for $20,000 in grant funding from the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance to realize the project, receiving $10,000 with the expectation they would raise the rest themselves.

“Downtown merchants and individuals throughout the city were very helpful with donations,” Carpenter said. “Columbus Light and Water donated the labor. Those kinds of partnerships were part of the grant.”

Lights started going up in January, and the last of the lights on buildings are going up this week, Verdell said.

There have been a couple of snags, though, beginning with the color of some of the lights on the buildings not quite matching the string lights that were already up over Main Street.

“The (string lights) are a warm yellow,” Bigelow said. “When they put the lights up on the buildings they had a bluish tint to them. It was determined it would be better if they all matched.”

Verdell said at the time the lights were swapped out, CLW had only done the buildings on the south side of the street. The old bulbs were removed, exchanged with the vendor and replaced. The north side of the street got the correct lights from the beginning.

All of the work was covered by grant money, Verdell said.

The other hitch is at the intersection of Fifth Street North and Third Avenue North at Zachary’s, Verdell said.

“There’s an issue with the crosswalk sign,” Verdell said. “There are some repairs that need to happen with that and another pole needs to go up. When that’s done we’ll be able to complete (hanging the lights).”

Carpenter said she hopes all the work will be finished by the time Market Street Festival rolls around in early May.

Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.

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