On December 22, 2023, a meeting was held at GALLERY ONE EIIIEVEN with representatives of the major Civic and Service organizations in the area. In the meeting it was discussed that a group project would be a good idea that involved all groups represented. The replacement of the outdated and dim streetlights in the Main Street District was discussed. This project was then organized in terms of logistics and costs. The research indicated that the current lights were HPS (high pressure sodium) which provided a yellow cast. In addition, the globes were old and had yellowed. It was determined that new, bright, more efficient LED lighting was needed. This was approached as a safety issue.  In the fall and winter there is more evening activity downtown, due to the businesses that are open late and involve children. 

Ms. Patti Larney, City Administrator for Leesville, provided the City’s contact at CLECO, Mr. Tripp Dungan.  He was asked to look into the matter.  Dungan presented this to the CLECO engineering department. CLECO had already retrofitted two of the lamps with LED lighting, but they were decorative fixtures and not made for effective street lighting.

Conversations with the Civic Caucus, the City of Leesville and CLECO moved forward through the year. The Caucus provided an inventory of all lights and locations. CLECO visited and confirmed lights that were new, old, working and broken. Costs were assembled, and a fundraising effort was discussed, should the city not be able to handle the total bill.

CLECO ended up replacing nearly all of the 65 lights with new LED fixtures and globes in the Leesville Main Street District.  All of the lights on Third Street are now new, and this came at no cost to the city or taxpayers. The City of Leesville and the Caucus worked on this throughout the year.  This is a great improvement to the Main Street District, infinitely safer for everyone.   Big thanks to CLECO for their civic minded approach to helping the citizens of Leesville.