WESTLOCK — The Westlock Thunderbirds football club no longer have to worry about the lights going out.
The stadium lighting, which was installed on the Westlock Thunderbirds home field behind Westlock Elementary School in August 2022, is now a permanent fixture thanks to donations of time, money, equipment, and labour from the Town of Westlock and several local businesses.
“It’s a great thing to have. We’re looking forward to it because one practice last year the generator just quit halfway through practice and the lights went out,” said T-Birds fundraising coordinator Jerry Buchko. “This time we just put the lights on, there’s no noise or humming from the generator and the team can practice as long as they want.”
The work, which included “trenching in the line from the transformer to the score clock” was completed during the last week of July, and several days later a meter was added.
Buchko noted the cost of the work and installation, which included a power transformer from Fortis Alberta, was $52,000. Those costs were covered by the town and several local businesses, who stepped up to help with the permanent solution for the club.
Last season, Fortis Alberta donated the power transformer at a cost of $45,000 with the remaining $7,000, coming from other donations, noted Buchko.
“We got $7,000 in the form of a grant from the town, donation from Mark Littlechilds of LC Welding and the Westlock Football Association kicked in the rest,” he said.
Westlock’s Kiewit Construction and Eagle Excavating also contributed in a big way to the project.
“Eagle Excavating did it all. They donated their time, the machinery and the labour,” said Buchko, adding they also backfilled the line. “Kiewit donated the power line that went into the ground.”
Windsor Plywood donated a box for the breaker board, to protect it from the elements, while Pro Power hooked up the breaker box and wiring to the back of the clock and Fortis finished things up, connecting the other end of the line to the power transformer.
“Our first game that we’ll be using them (stadium lights) will be Oct. 11, in our Friday Night Lights game,” Buchko concluded.
