Decorative poles about to be installed as part of the 10th Street reconstruction project will look just like the controversial ones already up on 9th Street, the District of Houston council has decided.
And nothing can be done to the existing poles on 9th criticized as resembling crucifixion crosses without incurring a cost council is not prepared to entertain.
Decisions on what to do about the look of the poles followed an intense discussion between council members when they met on Sept. 5.
At the heart of the situation was a council resolution passed Feb. 21, 2023 which authorized the expenditure of up to $20,000 to install two curved blades to each pole’s cross beam to smooth out the visual impression of a cross.
But as District staffers were working their way through a plan, an engineer’s assessment provided by Urban Systems, the District’s consulting company managing the 9th and 10th Street projects, determined the foundations of the existing 9th Street poles are not strong enough to withstand the impact of winds striking the curved blades.
Urban Systems also provided a cost of approximately $10,000 to beef up the foundation size for the 10th Street poles so that they could withstand wind pressure from additional items such as curved blades, flower baskets and Christmas lights.
The consulting company said Christmas lights installed on the 9th Street poles needed to be done with extreme care so as not to increase the impact and stress on the foundations of winds blowing against the lights and from any ice forming on the lights.
District staffers provided several recommendations to council, the first being to rescind the Feb. 21, 2023 motion authorizing blades on the poles on both streets. Staff said the cost of new foundations on 9th would be prohibitive.
Staffers did recommend spending up to $15,000 to increase the size of the foundations for the 10th Street poles.
Council followed the staff recommendation by agreeing to rescind the Feb. 21, 2023 motion for curved blades and all poles.
They then agreed to increase the size of the foundations for the 10th Street poles, authorizing the expenditure of up to $15,000, as that would allow seasonal objects such as hanging baskets and Christmas lights to be placed on the poles.
“I know there’s a cost there. And that’s unfortunate but my feeling is that the base [of the poles] is getting those posts up to a standard to hold some weight,” said mayor Shane Brienen of the proposition.
The agreement for larger foundations on 10th Street came from a motion moved by councillor Jonathan van Barneveld and seconded by councillor Troy Reitsma saw all councillors and mayor Shane Brienen approve with the exception of councillor Rebecca Hougen.
Hougen said she did not want to see any additional costs incurred and advocated for the original design for foundations on 10th to be the size of the ones already in place on 9th Street.
Council members were not, however, finished with debating what to do with the poles on 10th Street now that there was agreement to increase the size of the foundations to handle more weight.
A motion was introduced by Van Barneveld and seconded by Reitsma to install the curved blades to alter the look of the 10th Street poles.
“That’s our new design because we as council have decided that’s what we were gong to do based upon hearing from our constituents that they wanted to see the poles change,” said Reitsma.
“So I think on 10th Street because we’re going to put in bigger bases we should go through with that,” he said of the curved blades.
But the motion was defeated with Van Barneveld and Reitsma being the only council members to vote in favour. Mayor Shane Brienen and councillors Lisa Mueller, Tom Stringfellow, Tom Euverman and Rebecca Hougen were opposed.
Installation of the larger foundations on 10th Street is imminent with the pole placement to follow.
Brienen did say he was disappointed that the 9th Street pole foundations have now been judged to be inadequate to hold additional weight.
“We had plans for Christmas decorations and having hanging baskets on that street and now they’re not able to do that,” he said.
Brienen said the issue of weight being a problem seems to have snuck through in 2019 when the 9th St. details were finalized prior to the start of construction.