Cookeville will phase out the remaining 12-foot decorative street poles in its downtown area to complete a transition to taller 14-foot models to improve the cityscape.
Cookeville Energy Department Director Carl Haney said the city started using decorative poles roughly 30 years ago before switching the standard height to 14 feet 10 years later. Haney said the taller poles prevent pedestrians from reaching the banner arms and help the downtown atmosphere look more aesthetically pleasing.
“One reason is the banner arms on the 12-foot- as you can imagine, those banners are about a three-foot banner,” Haney said. “So once you mount those on those poles, they’re at a height that’s pretty low when they’re next to sidewalks and such. And they actually were at a height that people could actually, you know, reach up and grab ahold or even swing on them. And a lot of the arms were getting bent and such as that.”
Haney said approximately 30 of the original 12-foot poles remain around the square and along Spring and Broad Streets. Haney said the department is now in the process of replacing those older poles because they have become worn and require frequent maintenance after 30 years of use.
“As you can imagine, after 30 years, they’ve become worn from having a lot of maintenance done to them,” Haney said. “So we’re in the process now we’re going to go ahead and change those out to a 14-foot pole and get some new ones put out there.”
Haney said the new 14-foot poles are also being installed in expansion areas such as the recently completed Cedar Street project. Haney said the taller poles are designed to accommodate the same three-foot banners and hanging flower baskets used by the city.
“This order that you’re talking about that council approved, uh, a few weeks ago- this order will help us phase out the rest of the 12-footers,” Haney said. “When we,you know, just as we can get those replaced as our work allows us, we’ll get those replaced. So this would be the end of those 12-footers after this.”
Haney said the city plans to repaint the old 12-foot poles and repurpose them for developers who want to pay for decorative street lighting upgrades in new subdivisions. Haney also said the department is identifying areas where it can convert overhead power lines to underground systems to improve reliability and aesthetics.
Haney said the department will install the new poles as the current workload allows.