City to replace pair of water lines
BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus City Council is moving forward with water-line replacements along two of the city’s streets, largely to beat the onset of winter.
During its joint regular committee meeting Thursday evening, members voted first to approve the projects and then to authorize the application for $158,500 in state grant funds to help pay for them. The city would match the grant, from the Ohio Public Works Commission, with $148,950.
The work is being planned for off the east curb of South East Street, from Woodlawn Avenue to Lucas Street, and off the south curb of Plymouth Street, from North Sandusky Avenue to Vollrath Street.
Council is acting now on the projects in order for the bid process to be completed before asphalt production is shut down for the winter.
Council president Sis Love said there have been innumerable breaks in the water line along the short stretch of Plymouth Street. In regards to the work on South East Street, she acknowledged that it would interfere with the picking up and dropping off of students at Bucyrus Elementary School.
“They may have to make some changes,” she said.
City auditor Joyce Schifer said the water line on South East will be very narrow. “They should be in and out of there quickly,” she said.
In other business, council members heard from Hopley Avenue resident Mark McGrew, who advised them to reconsider installing bright white LED lights in 89 metered lampposts throughout the city. He said the health effects of the lighting can be problematic.
“There’s blue in that, it keeps us from wanting to go from sleep,” he said. “It tells us it’s daytime because that’s how we’re wired. It interferes with our ability to get a good sleep. That’s been documented.”
The city has not made a decision on replacement lighting for the posts, but at council’s full meeting earlier in the week Councilman Steve Pifer said brighter LED lights make more sense for the city financially than the softer high-pressure sodium lighting Mayor Jeff Reser said was more appropriate for the city’s downtown historic district. Reser thinks the LED lighting is too bright.
“The mayor’s right, it would look like an airport runway,” McGrew said Thursday.
“I get what the mayor’s saying, but I have a hard time asking residents of the city to pay five times more for ambiance,” Pifer said.
Since Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Bruce Truka met with Kiess Electric in Bucyrus to compare the two kinds of lighting. He said an LED light can be expected to last for 50,000 hours while using 36 watts of electricity, while a sodium light uses 170 watts yet lasts only 24,000 hours on average.
“Why are we spending money when we don’t have to?” he asked.
The council committees also took up several smaller items of business Thursday, including the vacation of a small portion of an alley parallel to Woodlawn Avenue, the granting of an easement at the corner of Kaler Avenue and Wise Street, transfer of a Circle K liquor license, and the dedication of Friendship Lane near the wastewater treatment plant on the southwest edge of town, allowing the city to pave the small street.
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