The Common Council met 02/19/2025. One of the items they took up was a request from city staff for a $88,592 sole source contract to replace the decorative streetlight poles on the College Avenue Bridge. The Municipal Services Committee voted to recommend this item be approved with the expectation that city staff would come to the Common Council meeting prepared to provide information on what the timing, cost, and expected lifespan would be if they were replaced with standard aluminum poles instead of decorative poles.
Per city staff, it would it would be approximately $12,000 less expensive to replace the poles with aluminum instead of decorative galvanized steel. This had to be weighed against the city’s street scape style guide that called for decorative poles in that area, the longer process to acquire aluminum poles, the potential for tariffs to drive up the cost of replacement poles, and the fact that the current quote for the decorative poles was only good through the end of the week.
The Common Council ended up voting 12-3 to approve the sole source purchase of galvanized streetlight poles with alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Brad Firkus (District 3), and Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) voting against it.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The streetlight poles on the College Avenue bridge have become corroded and need to be replaced. Due to the harsh environmental conditions on the bridge, they rusted after only 15 years when normally the city would have expected to get 40 years out of poles of that nature. There is only one supplier that has poles that are close in style to the existing poles which are in place not only on the bridge but also on either side of it and stretch east all the way to the roundabout.
Per Director of Public Works Laura Jungwirth, the city expected the new poles to have a 25–40-year life which aligned with the timeframe for when the entire bridge would need to undergo maintenance and be resurfaced.
The new poles were treated in an improved manner that was not available for the old poles. “They coat the galvanizing under the paint, and then over the paint, they provide a durable, polyester, salt resistant coating. So, it’s it treats the inside, the outside, under the paint, over the paint. So, because of that, the life has been extended on these types of galvanized decorative poles.” In spite of the expected longer life, the poles would only have a short-term warranty which was standard for items of that sort.
It was noted that the quote for the proposed galvanized poles was from 2024 and expired at the end of the week, so the Council would need to approve it at that meeting in order to get that locked-in price.
Director Jungwirth also told the Council that the entire project was already under budget.
Alderperson Siebers said that after doing research he believed aluminum was the best option because its corrosion resistance made it ideal for harsh conditions and it had a 30–50-year life span with minimal maintenance.
There was some discussion about whether tariffs would happen and, if so, how they would impact the price of these poles, but it was all speculative in nature.
The Common Council ended up voting 12-3 to approve the sole source purchase of decorative galvanized streetlight poles for the College Avenue Bridge.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1254912&GUID=B757A893-3C2B-43F2-B22A-EDF53CE044A3
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