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Dedicated to Preserving the Community

Dundee Memorial Park Association

Grant awards from the Peter Kiewit Foundation, Mutual of Omaha, and Mayor Fahey's Neighborhood Improvement Grant program have enabled the Dundee Memorial Park Association to complete the final year of a three year project to refinish our old cast iron streetlights.

 

As we reported in December of 2006, the goal of the project has been to sandblast and paint the 200 of our 328 streetlights that were in the poorest condition. The project was completed in May, 2008.

 

Over the past three years, McGill Restoration, Inc. has sandblasted the poles, applied a primer coat, and two coats of Old Library Green industrial grade enamel. The work has been of extremely high quality.

 

As with most major projects in the Dundee Memorial Park neighborhood, this one started with Dan Rock. In the 1990's Dan began his 'light pole guardian' program. The goal was to find a caretaker for each pole in the neighborhood, who would take ownership of the pole and attend to its maintenance.  The program had some success and resulted in the painting of 20 - 30 poles. However, it was clear that not enough was being done to preserve the poles. In about 2004, Dan encouraged me to get something more done and the project began in late summer of 2005.

 

Throughout the project, B.J. Reed has been a very valuable source of support and guidance. In the early stages, B. J. set up and conducted meetings with City officials and OPPD to establish direction and has always been there when decisions needed to be made.

 

However, the lion's share of the credit goes to Tim McGill, Sr., President of McGill Restoration, and his experienced and skilled people. In January of 2006, Tim surveyed the poles and advised us just how the refinishing work should be done. Work began in the fall of 2006 with Gale Adams serving as foreman of the crew of sandblasters and painters. Gale has been an enormous pleasure to work with and has made it all seem easy.

 

The first year, cold weather was forecast to arrive a little sooner than we expected. Painter Tim Regan put in some long hours to finish before it got too cold to paint. There were times that year when Tim saw the streetlights come on before he finished his work for the day. Chris Pignotti shared painting duties. Tim Trader, Kevin Floren, and Gabrial Juarez were the sandblasters who removed all traces of paint layers that had accumulated over one hundred years. All of these gentlemen have combined to give a fresh new look to the poles that have become the signature aspect of the neighborhood and we thank them for their fine work.  I also want to thank Joanne Wilds, McGill Restoration Office Manager, for her unfailing good cheer and patience with me. I will really miss working with these people.

 

As mentioned above, McGill has refinished 200 of our 328 poles. Of the 128 that have not been done, 34 had been refinished by neighbors and are in very good condition. Thirty nine of them are aluminum replicas that have been installed to replace poles that have been knocked down or damaged. Most likely, damaged poles will be replaced with these from now on. That leaves 55 poles that have not been done in this project. Their appearance could (and should) be improved by minor scraping, wire brushing, and painting. My hope is that someone will be willing to step forward to coordinate this effort. I have good maps of the locations of poles that could use painting. If anyone is interested in doing this, please contact me at wjkelly@cox.net.

 

The overall cost of the three year project has been $46,380. Grants from the City through Mayor Fahey and his Neighborhood Improvement Grant program have accounted for $19,000 of the total. The 2008 Peter Kiewit Foundation award has contributed $6,000, and the 2008 Mutual of Omaha grant has added $5,000. The remainder ($16,380) has been paid using Dundee Memorial Park Association funds. We are very grateful for the grants that have made this project possible.

 

- Bill Kelly

 

 

 

                  

 

 

Streetlight Refinishing Project

Before

After

Click here to see the Master Project Map