The City of Spirit Lake has been taking down light poles on Highway 9 and Highway 71 over the last few days.
According to City Administrator Gregg Owens, the city had five light poles on Highway 9 come down in the major storm that went through the area last week. The City had previously taken down all of the 30 foot poles that didn’t meet the criteria established by the consulting engineer to remain standing.
Owens says that rather than leave the poles on the highway up while seeking further study on their condition which would take some time, it was decided to err on the side of caution and have all the remaining poles on Highway 9 and on Highway 71 taken down.
Owens noted that the City’s project to replace all the poles was to have been completed in the fall, but manufacturing has been delayed due to steel availability issues, and the manufacturer has been unable to supply them to the contractor. The project is now scheduled to proceed in February of 2022.
Owens said that with so-called “healthy” poles coming down in the storm, the City felt that public safety interests mandated the removal of the remaining poles on the highways.
