New downtown streetlights begin going up after decade-plus wait

A long-delayed project to replace Petersburg's downtown streetlights is finally underway, with the first new poles installed last week and the rest expected to go up over the coming weeks, Utility Director Stephan Harbour told the assembly Monday.

The borough is installing 13 new LED poles downtown and purchased two more as spares for accident replacements - 15 in all - at a cost of about $138,000. Two were already standing as of Monday, one in front of the federal building and one across the street. Harbour said he checked the first one Friday night and it threw light "all the way across the...