Electric company real winner in Hywy 97 lights

[patric]

Sand Springs officials may be elated that state taxpayers picked up most of the approximately $550,000 tab to install lights along highway 97, but it's the local taxpayers that will have to foot the monthly electric bill for the mostly unnecessary and poorly-designed lighting.

Citing wrong-way accidents as the safety justification for the miles of continuous lighting, only "Interchange" lighting, or lighting at entrances and roadway interchanges, was actually necessary to address those concerns.

"Through our partnership with ODOT, we will be able to accomplish a very visible project that will make our community shine more brightly" says the Sand Springs city website posting from Jan. 2007.

Rather than simply light the areas where traffic enters or conflicts,  the city installed 101 light fixtures over a 2 1/4-mile stretch of roadway – including the Arkansas River bridge.

The project uses glare-prone "mongoose" style lighting fixtures with either a 250-watt or 400-watt bulb. The mongoose design casts light outward (into the eyes of motorists) as well as downward.

[Ibanez]

The leadership, I feel funny even typing that word in regards to those people, in Sand Springs has never been guilty of forward thinking.

[Bones013]

Amen Wavoka. . . .      Amen. . .

[TheArtist]

They constantly suprise me over there in Sand Springs lol. But never in a good way. Shame really.

[roscoe]

I think the new lights look great.money well spent if you ask me. $ 8000 a year is what the electric bill is going to be.