The Mount Vernon City Council will look at reviewing digital banners usage later this winter or early spring.
Council member Mark Andresen had requested adding this item to the council agenda. He has several friends who like driving down and seeing these digital banners in the community, but the city currently has the banners programmed to be shut off from 10:30 p.m. until 6 a.m.
Assistant city administrator Lori Boren explained that the city has dialed the intensity of light to the banners down to 5 percent in the evenings, after their roll-out had the banners on too bright in the uptown. The lights run on a program that details when they need to be off or on, so a staff member isn’t responsible for manually turning the lights or banners off every night.
Andresen said he thinks that the banners being on past 10:30 p.m. is not an issue, that they run much lower in intensity in their brightness compared to the new streetlights.
“I think we should make good with our agreement with Alliant and run these more often,” Andresen said. “I don’t think they need to be kept off, especially at night.”
Council member Craig Engel recommended tabling any decision until after a winter season has completed, noting the community has not seen how the lights and banners intensity is impacted by having snow on the ground.
“I think it’s something we revisit early in the new year,” Engel said.
Council member Stephanie West said that one way the digital banners have helped has been by allowing for fewer banners city workers have to replace on light poles.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said that the city needs to order new banners for the other light poles in uptown Mount Vernon that do not have digital banners to display something.
West said that the city may want to hold off on any new banners that use Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group’s new logo, as the group is looking at a potential rebrand.
Council member Scott Rose agreed with tabling any further discussion on the lights until later this winter or early spring.