By Jim Reece - The Sutter Creek City Council saw the light, historically, Monday night in its regular session, hearing a presentation from a Midwest streetlight vendor and a Pacific Gas & Electric spokeswoman. They heard a presentation on vintage style street lights then got some lectures form citizens who worried about city coffers, before another item on the agenda, raising wastewater rates and avoiding a negative balance in the sewer department’s operating funds. Shelley Scott of PG&E said the utility would offer grant funding and also would pay for parts of the new lights, if the city added an extra street lamp to the downtown’s roughly baker’s dozen of them. Ed Swift showed a vintage style streetlight cover that he said was probably very much like the lampshades used in Sutter Creek’s downtown. Swift said when he moved to Sutter Creek in the 1950s, there were simple wooden posts with lights on them, unlike the cast iron posts introduced by Gary Goran from the company Holophane, of Newark, Ohio. Goran said the glass lights were guaranteed not to turn yellow for 100 years, except for on lamp, which showed a yellow light, but lightened as the bulb heated up. Councilman Pat Crosby asked what the cost was for the cast iron posts. Scott said they ranged in price from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars. Swift, resident John Monross and others urged the council not to dally with vintage lighting until the city’s economy recovered, or until the future of the American economy was better known. Crosby said the issue of vintage lights should be turned over to the newly formed architectural advisory committee, to discuss the lamps with the vendors. Scott said that PG&E needed an application from the city to work with city Staff on the lights. The council thanked the presenters and Mayor Gary Wooten said the city would call the companies when they were ready to consider the lights. The council later in closed session discussed the Knight Foundry, which at one time in the past had discussed building vintage cast iron streetlights for the city.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008 04:11
Sutter Creek Considers Vintage Streetlights
By Jim Reece - The Sutter Creek City Council saw the light, historically, Monday night in its regular session, hearing a presentation from a Midwest streetlight vendor and a Pacific Gas & Electric spokeswoman. They heard a presentation on vintage style street lights then got some lectures form citizens who worried about city coffers, before another item on the agenda, raising wastewater rates and avoiding a negative balance in the sewer department’s operating funds. Shelley Scott of PG&E said the utility would offer grant funding and also would pay for parts of the new lights, if the city added an extra street lamp to the downtown’s roughly baker’s dozen of them. Ed Swift showed a vintage style streetlight cover that he said was probably very much like the lampshades used in Sutter Creek’s downtown. Swift said when he moved to Sutter Creek in the 1950s, there were simple wooden posts with lights on them, unlike the cast iron posts introduced by Gary Goran from the company Holophane, of Newark, Ohio. Goran said the glass lights were guaranteed not to turn yellow for 100 years, except for on lamp, which showed a yellow light, but lightened as the bulb heated up. Councilman Pat Crosby asked what the cost was for the cast iron posts. Scott said they ranged in price from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars. Swift, resident John Monross and others urged the council not to dally with vintage lighting until the city’s economy recovered, or until the future of the American economy was better known. Crosby said the issue of vintage lights should be turned over to the newly formed architectural advisory committee, to discuss the lamps with the vendors. Scott said that PG&E needed an application from the city to work with city Staff on the lights. The council thanked the presenters and Mayor Gary Wooten said the city would call the companies when they were ready to consider the lights. The council later in closed session discussed the Knight Foundry, which at one time in the past had discussed building vintage cast iron streetlights for the city.
