Street lights are going up as Christmas approaches

by Angie Asam, Staff Writer

Crews from Thunder Bay Electric of Alpena arrived in Rogers City early Monday morning and began putting up the new streetlights. Beginning with the light in front of Dr. Ryan?s Dentist office the crews quickly spread down Third Street as they installed the new fixtures and poles.

However, Consumers Power did not hook up the connections as of yet meaning the new lights cannot go on and the old blue poles cannot come down. Consumers was scheduled to be in town to make those connections Tuesday and the new lights should be on Tuesday evening if all goes as planned.

The poles and lights arrived at Thunder Bay Electric last week and crews have been working on how they would go about putting them up once they got outside and in downtown Rogers City. The crews arrived in Rogers City very organized and ready to install the new lights.

City manager Mark Slown is very pleased with the crews that worked on the project, ini

tially Cordes Excavating and later their subcontractor in Thunder Bay Electric. ?Many merchants have approached me and told me how impressed they are with the crews who worked on this project. Both companies were very organized and courteous,? said Slown. Besides a few minor details that will need to be ironed out in the future including the installation of the banner arms when they arrive as well as the installation of the power boxes on each pole. One pole near Heller?s Gifts does have an electrical power box on it but it is gray and Slown indicated to the contractor that he would like those boxes to be black.

The company believes they can turn on the new lights without the power boxes installed and wait until black ones can be put up to fix the issue. The change will not cost extra but will delay the installation of the power boxes. Slown has heard several positive comments from community members who felt the new lights looked very sharp, but as he indicated the true test will be when the lights are turned on in the darkness.

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