County Board approves dusk to dawn lighting project
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By Carmen Ensinger
The Greene County Board has approved a generous offer from “unknown donors” to fund a lighting project that will provide exterior lighting that will light up the exterior of the courthouse.
Greene County Attorney Nick Graham, who is associated with the Carrollton Square Initiative (CSI), said he has been seeing a lot of renovations taking place around the county.
“It is like a breath of fresh air in people investing money in opening businesses in this county and it is looking like we have a bright future,” Graham told the board. “With that being said, our courthouse looks like a black hole at night. One of the projects we had proposed was lighting up the exterior and a few months back we received a quote from a company to do just that.”
That company was Duck to Dawn Lighting out of St. Louis. Graham’s proposal was to raise the funds for the lighting project privately, at no expense to the county. Those funds have been raised.
“I am happy to announce that those funds have been raised to do this project,” Graham said. “I just spoke to the contractor to find out when he could do this project and he said he could do it in September. He could start on a Friday and it would be completed by Sunday.”
The project will install:
• 27 LED well-lights highlighting and grazing the stone walls of the exterior of the courthouse.
• Four LED brass up lights highlighting the area above the entrance of the north side.
• Four LED brass down lights highlighting the stairs on the north side.
• Six LED mini puck lights highlighting the areas under the front entrance ceiling on the north and south sides.
• Four LED RGB full color fixtures highlighting the clock tower.
• Three LED well lights core drilled around the base of the flagpole on the north side.
• Four transformers and timers.
All of the LED lights will be controlled through a mobile app installed on a phone. The only thing the county will be responsible for will be the energy used by the lights, which, because they are LED lights, will be very minimal. Earlier, Graham had mentioned that the estimated cost would be around $200 per year in energy usage. The project comes with a 20-year warranty.
“What I’m asking of the board is if you want to consider this project,” Graham said. “Before we give our stamp of approval and give them the okay to do it, you will have to pass a resolution adopting and approving the project.”
Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen, who is in charge of the courthouse and its maintenance, fully supports the project.
“I fully support this project,” he said. “I think it will make this building look really nice. The courthouse looks almost abandoned at night right now.”
The board approved the project.
Graham did not mention where the funding was coming from but did say they would be using the CSI to run the funding through. However, he did not say that CSI was funding the project.
