Windermere to upgrade downtown lighting

The Windermere Town Council members held an impromptu council meeting on Monday, Oct. 10, to discuss planned electrical upgrades for downtown.

Council members arranged the sudden meeting because it decided to not convene for its regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11, due to Yom Kippur. However, the matter of electrical upgrades is a time-sensitive issue they desired to resolve before the Light Up Windermere event Nov. 18. If they had waited two more weeks for the following regular council meeting, Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn explained, it is likely the electrical service upgrades would not be completed before the event.

"They need to expand it from 30 amps to 50 amps because the food trucks are drawing more power than we have," Bruh explained. "None of the money is coming from tax dollars. All the money that's being spent for this came from either funds received from the Windermere Wine and Dine or the funds out of the downtown business committee, which is raised through our downtown food trucks and farmers market."

The meeting saw the council authorize expenses amounting to $62,683. The funding for the project will come from the downtown business committee's reserves ($45,000) and the proceeds from the Windermere Wine and Dine ($20,000). The estimated expenses are $17,586 for enhanced year-round lighting, $6,367 for annual holiday lighting and $38,730 labor and materials, according to a price quote from the chosen contractor, Bright Future Electric.

"I think it'll be kind of nice," Bruhn said. "You got to remember we didn't have something called Light Up Windermere five years ago. ... this affords us the opportunity to couple our food truck event, which is huge, with the light-up Windermere ... it's going to take us another step to where we want to be with the event."

The next Windermere Town Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Oct. 25.

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected]