Although fishing on our long pier has been as slow as I've ever seen, some guests have asked about the maintenance of the lighting. The old metal halide lamps that were originally installed have about reached their expected life span in this environment. At this time I see five that are in need of replacement and about five more that are not properly aligned to illuminate the water fully. Some of those have rusted brackets and cannot be easily realigned.
Last year we installed three newer LED fixtures with a life expectancy of 30 years while operating with only about 20% of the current energy usage. They run about $700 plus installation. It was our plan to replace the older metal halide lamps with these as the older lamps failed. However, we can't do that alone. We share the maintenance and operational costs with Phase II. Their board wishes to wait until their annual owners' meeting in November to make a decision about what to do about the lighting. So until then we will just continue to use the lights that are still working and hope that fishing will pick up soon to make it worthwhile to even turn the lights on. I have yet to see a keeper trout come off the pier all summer long, but it remains a scenic 496 foot walk to the end.