Idaho 55 through downtown Cascade is getting a new look.
A $260,000 project to install new solar streetlamps along Main Street (Idaho 55) is currently underway and expected to be complete this fall, according to Cascade Mayor Judith Nissula.
The project is intended to improve safety by better illuminating the street and reducing the number of poles and trees that can obscure pedestrians as they enter crosswalks.
“As a driver, you can’t see people coming out,” Nissula said. “It’s just kind of scary.”
So far, the new streetlamps have been installed in front of the Valley County Courthouse. Crews will continue replacing the lights on the west side of the road before moving to the east side. Once complete, the solar lights will span Main Street between Payette Street and Spring Street.
The solar lights are about twice as tall as the existing streetlamps and include a solar panel mounted atop each light pole. The lights comply with the city’s dark skies ordinance, which requires outdoor lighting to meet certain standards to avoid shining onto other properties or into the sky.
Once the replacement project is complete, Main Street will have fewer lights overall, or three per block on each side of the road.
About five trees planted in sidewalk beds are also likely to be removed to make room for the new streetlamps. Replacement trees could be planted elsewhere in sidewalk planters in the future.
Nissula said some have been critical of the city’s decision to remove trees, but the city council believes the changes will help balance the number of trees on each side of the street. Currently, significantly more trees line the west side.
“I was born and raised here,” she said. “The last thing that I would want to do is make this place look ugly. In my heart, I know it will look better once it’s done.”
Energy savings expected
The solar panels are expected to produce enough energy to power the lights, with no electrical connections in place to provide supplemental energy.
The city is confident the lights will receive enough solar energy to turn on nightly, based on similar lights installed near Family Dollar about two years ago using a Safe Routes to Schools grant. Nissula said she is not aware of a time when the lights were unable to turn on due to snow or lack of sunlight.
No paywall. No clickbait. No AI. No corporate owner.
Your support makes Valley Lookout possible.
Make a donation of any size here
“The whole point was to test to see what we wanted to do in the future,” she said.
This past summer, the city spent about $1,500 per month on electricity to power the existing streetlamps. The cost is even higher during the winter when there are more hours of darkness, Nissula said.
Aging streetlamps difficult to maintain
The streetlamps currently lining Main Street were installed in the 1980s. Their age has made it impossible to find matching replacements and difficult to find parts for repairs.
That has become increasingly problematic as the decades-old lights begin to break down or get damaged, like in 2022 when one of the lights melted in the Watkins Pharmacy fire.
“We couldn’t replace these anyway,” she said. “When we took the old lights down (by the courthouse), they basically just crumbled.”
The $260,000 streetlamp project is funded by grant money, the city’s Street Department, and local-option tax funding.
Contact: [email protected]
©2025, Elevate 208 Media – an Idaho-owned company. – Privacy policy | Terms
You must be logged in to post a comment.