Author: woodruffadmin

Woodruff Plays a Small Part in Indy’s Conversion to LED Streetlights
One promise that candidate – and now Mayor – Hogsett made during his 2015 campaign was to lift the decades-old moratorium on new streetlights. The moratorium – a move to keep the streetlight budget flat – was declared in the early 1980s and rescinded when the Mayor announced that 100 new streetlights would be installed during 2016.

For the most part, the City does not want to own streetlights. Rather, Indianapolis Power and Light owns all but a handful of streetlights in Marion County and leases them to the City at rates set by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Rates cover power and maintenance and varies by fixture style and lighting technology. Woodruff’s fixtures are among the few owned by the City (due to the 1962 annexation).

Fast forward to 2012 when our fixtures were retrofitted to LED lighting technology, somewhat of an experiment at the time. We knew LED would use less electricity, estimated in 2012 to be about 75% less. Recently I asked the City’s streetlight administrator about actual savings. The answer: The City paid IPL about $20,000/year for the 74 Woodruff fixtures with mercury vapor lights; LED reduced the cost to about $5,000/year.

I also asked if any of the savings had helped underwrite the 100 new fixtures in 2016. The answer: Yes! The “experiment” with LED in Woodruff helped make 100 new fixtures possible.

More recently the Mayor announced that thousands of streetlights in Indianapolis would be converted to LED technology and that 4,000 new lights would be installed across town. Again, experience with LED in Woodruff helped shape this decision.

In-Case-You-Were-Wondering-Department: The Woodruff Place Light Brigade overhauled eight of our historic five-globe light fixtures during the spring and summer of 2017. Three fixtures had cracks in the large base piece which required welding, and five overhauls included new concrete pads to overcome “lean” caused by settling. Overhaul also includes complete disassembly, sandblasting, then priming and painting the parts and pieces. Concrete pads are replaced as needed.

Piece by Piece, the Fence Gets Rebuilt

This summer and fall will see the installation of six more mini-sections of the 10^th Street fence. A mini-section is comprised of five balusters, two half-rails placed between two medium posts and two caps, bolted on the original foundation. Volunteers lift the concrete, 200-pound half rails into place directed by long-time chairman Charlie Neill, who has developed special tools and methods over the years.

It’s a project for a turtle, not a hare. The August 1988 edition of the Woodruff Place Post reported the frustration of neighbors watching the “crumbling relic” deteriorate and whole sections disappear. That year, property owners voted to proceed with a plan to have molds constructed so fence pieces could be made by volunteers in the basement of the town hall. Five years of casting would be done before the first piece is installed on 10^th Street. Since then, 45 mini-sections have been built or secured and 15 large posts have been cast on-site at the original entrances on 10th St. as well as Michigan Street. Many Woodruffians have given their time and energy to this project over the years and the tradition continues. “Thanks to everyone who has helped in one way or another,” said Charlie. “We’ll just keep making progress, piece by piece.”

(For UT September 2017)