Kalispell's decorative streetlights get upgrade

Over the next few years, 85 decorative streetlights in downtown Kalispell will be taken out, restored and put back in with LED bulbs that promise to reduce the city’s maintenance and electricity costs.

The five-globe streetlights — prevalent along Main Street and in Depot Park — were installed in the early 1980s and today are faded gray and showing their age.

“We were spending a lot of time maintaining them because they just kept going out. They were shorting out quite a bit because rain water was getting in,” Public Works Director Susie Turner said.

Six of the streetlights on First Streets East and West and two on Third Street West already have been restored this fiscal year, the first year of the project.

Public works staffers plan to restore 12 streetlights a year as time and money allows. The project is being paid for through the city’s light maintenance assessment.

Replacing the streetlights’ five-light globes and sealing them to keep out water is just part of the work. Once the streetlights are taken out, their metal frames are sandblasted and powder-coated with a black finish and new wiring, sockets and LED bulbs are put in.

“We could bust them out fast, but it’s the money,” said Josh Brinton, traffic signs and signals technician. The lights cost about $700 each to restore, pushing the project’s long-term cost to about $60,000.

While they’re out, the streetlights are being outfitted with larger service holes and more consistent hardware that should make them easier to service in the future. And because they’re used by some people to plug in Christmas light displays downtown, they’re also getting new ground fault interrupter switches to reduce the risk of electric shock.

The LED bulbs promise to save Kalispell money. The bulbs are more resistant to cold and vibration and last as long as 100,000 hours compared to the 10,000-hour life for an incandescent bulb, Turner and Brinton said.

They also use a third of the energy. With the streetlights running 3,470 hours a year on average — triggered on and off by a sensor — that should mean savings of about $2,300 a year in electricity costs.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.