Grand Island’s City Council approved an overhead street lighting project for 4th Street, similar to current lighting on 3rd Street, (Carol Bryant, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND – Grand Island’s City Council approved by a 10-0 vote May 13 a street lighting project for 4th Street, similar to overhead current lighting on 3rd Street.
According to a memo to the City Council from Matthew Gleason, the city’s finance director, city staff recommended doing nine city blocks between Eddy and Kimball Streets. The cost would be $250,000 for material and labor provided by the Utilities Department.
The Finance Department recommended using $250,000 in Keno funds to pay for the project.
“I’m excited by this. If you drive on 4th Street at night, the lighting is insufficient,” Mayor Roger Steele said.
“I think this is awesome,” City Council President Jack Sheard said.
Gleason wrote that in August 2022, the discussion of a Railside Festoon Light Project on 3rd Street was initiated in a City Council study session. “$180,000 was earmarked for the project as part of the fiscal year 2022-2023 budget later that month. The lights themselves were lit publicly for the first time a few months later in November 2022. Six blocks on 3rd Street between Elm and Sycamore have been lit nightly since then,” Gleason wrote.
“The appeal of the lights and nightlife it brings opened the eyes of another district in our community, the 4th Street Business Improvement District (BID),” Gleason wrote.
The 4th Street BID was created in September 2023 and has been looking to enhance their district ever since,” Gleason wrote.
At the May 13 City Council meeting, city staff indicated that 40 more light poles would need to be ordered for the project, which would be completed by October.
In another matter, in the consent agenda, the City Council approved unanimously items including a bid award for construction of a new trail in Cedar Hills Park.
According to a memo from Parks and Recreation Director Todd McCoy, the park features a playground, swings, picnic areas, a basketball hoop, mature shade trees, and a 0.45 asphalt loop trail, which has multiple areas of damage, including cracks, holes, and washouts.
The City Council approved spending $900,000 at budget time to renovate the Eagle Scout Park trail. After the City Council approved the budget, a Good Life District initiative was passed by voters. City staff is recommending delaying major renovations to the Eagle Scout Park trail and instead using the approved budget authority to replace the Cedar Hills Park trail, McCoy wrote.
City Council previously approved a motion to hire JEO Consulting of Grand Island to provide design services for replacement of Cedar Hills Park trail for $27,200.
The Parks and Recreation Department advertised a construction bid in April 2025 to replace the asphalt trail at Cedar Hills Park with a concrete trail. Five bids were received. City staff recommends accepting the low bid from Diamond Engineering for $198,299.50, coming from the city’s General Fund.
