Some detective work may have saved the day for the historic look of downtown St. Joseph. Those iconic white globe street lights lining the central business district have become increasingly problematic as they age, and finding replacements has been a particularly nettlesome thing for public works staff and others at St. Joe City Hall. But relief may be in sight.
City Commissioners and staff had been led to believe that they could no longer purchase the identical light poles that line the streets of downtown. However, Deputy Director of Parks & Grounds Greg Grothous says that city staffers have — after a year and a half of detective work — tracked down the manufacturer and supplier of the white light poles with twin globes on a cross bar that populate the district.
Turns out the poles are manufactured by Pennsylvania Globe Gas Light Company (or simply Penn Globe) based in North Branford, Connecticut, and the Midwest supplier of Penn Globe products is Baylume Lighting of Lathrup Village in Southeast Michigan.
Grothous says that Baylume is the sole source supplier of the poles and they are now making plans to stock up for the future.
With five poles currently identified as being in need of replacement in the near future, and twelve existing acrylic globes also identified to be replaced, the City Commission will take up the purchase of new stock to keep the look alive and in good shape downtown when they meet tonight.
As many have noted over the years, the acrylic globes are known to ‘yellow,’ or become discolored over time as a result of sunlight and perhaps the heat of the bulb inside. Armed with that information, staff is recommending to the City Commission on tonight’s consent agenda that they purchase 10 replacement poles and 25 glass replacement globes at a cost to the city of $30,185. That would give the city an inventory on hand when additional poles or globes require replacement.
One major reason for maintaining a set inventory is that lead-time from the manufacturer for creation of new poles runs six months. The money for the streetlight project would come from the city’s capital improvement fund if authorized tonight.
Meanwhile, City Manager John Hodgson is alerting residents and others that the Maritime Heritage Trail historical signs in the city have been removed for graphics updating and captions and a refreshed design by Holt Bosse. The city’s Susan Solon has been working with the agency and the Heritage Museum & Cultural Center to make the upgrades.
The signs have been disappearing from Lake Bluff Park and the Margaret B. Upton Arboretum to make way for the new replacements which are due to arrive by May 1st and be re-installed by mid-May.
