Northside Marketplace lighting project a success

IOWA CITY - Passers-by in Iowa City's Northside Marketplace may have noticed some extra glimmering lights once the sun goes down.

In a collaborative effort, officials with the Iowa City Downtown District working with area property owners and receiving financial aid from the City of Iowa City, River Products Company and Iowa City Press-Citizen, and the expertise of staff at Hawkeye Electric, the Northside Marketplace lighting project lit up several blocks around Market Street's intersections with Gilbert and Linn streets Dec. 10.

'We had a few slow starts on it because the product didn't come in right away, but it was a really great project, everybody just came together,” Downtown District Executive Director Nancy Bird said. 'So far I have only heard really great reaction to the aesthetic look of it.”

The roughly $58,000 lighting project, which placed LED lights on a number of neighborhood buildings, took about three weeks to install, said Hawkeye Electric project manager Kirby Kesterson.

Much more than simply hanging lights, Kesterson said the project was actually quite a detailed undertaking, requiring 20 different chronological timers set to turn the lights on once it gets dark.

Neighborhood property owners have added the lighting cost - which comes in at only about $10 a year - into their respective electric bills, Bird said.

'It's a very low cost to operate,” she said.

Kirby described the evening of Dec. 10 when all 1,622 feet of lighting - with a bulb every one foot on center - came to life.

'I thought it was pretty miraculous,” he said. 'Everybody that was on the street that night was surely happy and if they're happy, we're happy.”