Council for the Town of Rocky Mountain House is hoping to shed some light on the community’s local football field.

At their meeting April 5, council instructed administration to work with Rocky Mountain House and District Minor Football Association and bring back a report with more information regarding the potential lighting of Curtis Field.

Administration has met with the project group which consists of representatives from minor football, Wild Rose School Division (WRSD), and a local electrical contractor who has been working on the project since 2018.

As Curtis Field is on WRSD property, the school division’s director of facilities will be acting as project manager along with the president of minor football, who will be the funding agent for the project as they were the recipient to the Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) grant.

Town officials say work has begun by the contractor and minor football to confirm the engineering required for the piles and poles. Minor football has also been successful in securing other in-kind services for the project as well.

One consideration being discussed is the lighting of the oval in the winter for skating. Currently there are six streetlights lighting the oval that are part of the entire town street light network. Minor football says it is looking at the possibility of adding additional lights to the poles to light up the oval but this was not part of the original design. Officials say the field lighting is very directional and intended to light up the playing field only. If lighting is added to the poles to cover the oval, then the existing street lights can be removed.

Town officials say the cost of lighting the oval with streetlights would come from the entire town streetlight grid. There are currently 869 streetlights in the community. Information from Fortis indicates the average streetlight is $26-$30/month for distribution and transmission costs with the total bill impact including rates/riders etc. estimated at an average cost of $40.00/month per streetlight.

One concern raised by WRSD was related to the ongoing operating cost of the lights as well as future maintenance and life cycle replacement of the lights.
Officials say the plan for the electrical is to bring power from the spray park building. This was accounted for with the construction of the spray park. A second meter will be placed in the spray park building to monitor the electrical usage of the football field lights. The actual cost of the power for the lights will not be known until a full year of usage, say Town officials. The lights will be set on timers that could be controlled based on time of year and the usage of the fields by user groups or the community.

Administration has met directly with representatives of WRSD to discuss the topic of operational cost and maintenance. WRSD has indicated they are not in a financial position to cover the operational costs and realistically, the schools themselves would only use the lights a couple of times a year. The main users of the sports field is expected to be minor sports organizations. Officials acknowledge the community at-large uses the oval in the winter which is constructed and maintained by the Town. If the project is completed prior to the fall season, administration will get some indication related to actual electrical costs for one or two months. Administration says it will take this into consideration when reviewing rates and fees for the sports fields and preparing the 2023 budget.

Administration has contacted a couple of communities that have lighting on their sports fields and learned there is not a lot of expense other than the electrical costs based on usage, with maintenance said to be minimal. The current quoted price for the lights themselves (60 LED high mast lights) is approximately $85,000.