Football lights to cost between $180K-$190K

By MIKE WEST, Courier Editor

The Cannon County Board of Education heard a preliminary cost estimate of between $180,000 and $190,000 for new lights at CCHS’s football field.

The project is designed to replace lights donated some 20 years ago by MTSU.

A teleconference with engineer Larry Headla of Facilities Systems Consultants on Tuesday (May 27) helped define cost figures for the project despite two brief power outages that left the board in the dark.

“Hello, are you there? We are the ones that lost you. We went into the dark,” Barbara Parker, director of schools, said during the workshop.

Headla said the cost would include 80-foot galvanized steel poles, new underground wiring and a central monitoring system for the lighting set-up.

Board chairman Randy Gannon asked Headla if money could be saved by cutting out the monitoring system or replacing the metal poles with wooden ones.

`You’ll save between $5,000 and $8,000” by eliminating the monitoring system, Headla said, but the system is actually designed to extend the life of the actual light bulbs. “It will cost $1,000 to change one or two lights at a time.”

Wooden poles “just don’t save as much,” the engineer said. “It is quite a cost to get poles that are 80-feet tall.

“They are going to decay and as they do they splinter and twist. They can twist as much as 5 percent. That can effect the evenness of your lighting,” Headla said.

Wooden poles could save as much as $15,000, but that savings could be eroded by having to realign the lights, he said.

Headla said the lighting system would carry a 25-year warranty with no service fee. The contractor’s warranty will be for one year.

“All of the maintenance is covered,” excluding acts of nature or accidents, he said.

Director Parker reminded board members that no decision could be made at the meeting. Any action will come at the board of education’s next regular meeting.

Parker also reminded the board that the project would not be completed in time for the upcoming school year.

“It won’t be installed this year … it will be for next year,” she said.