Singing students packed the Powell High School auditorium throughout the holiday season, but at the end of December, the auditorium was filled with scaffolding.

Crews set up scaffolding to reach the auditorium’s highest points as part of an extensive project to replace 65 light fixtures.

The auditorium’s 250-watt quartz house lights were replaced with new, longer-lasting LED fixtures and bulbs. Work started the weekend before Christmas and wrapped up before school resumed Jan. 5.

On Tuesday night, the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees approved final completion of the project.

The board had unanimously approved Bar T Electric of Powell’s bid for $90,300 in October. At that time, then-school board member Patty Wurzel questioned the need for the relighting project, noting the school isn’t very old.

“We can always go back and blame the design,” answered Todd Wilder, coordinator of support services for the district, adding later that he’s glad to say he wasn’t with the school district when the high school was designed.

“The particular lighting fixtures that were selected used a conventional halogen-type bulb in them, and it turns out they have a very short life expectancy,” he said.

The quartz lightbulbs were replaced in 2010, but within four-and-a-half years, only six of those bulbs still worked.

The school district doesn’t have the lifts or scaffolding to reach lights above rows of seats, so staff couldn’t replace burned-out bulbs. At least 70 percent of the bulbs had burned out over the years and couldn’t be reached.

“We replaced the ones that we could reach with our own lifts, but we couldn’t reach over the seating areas — we just don’t have the kind of lifting tools to do that,” Wilder said.

The new LED lights are expected to last much longer, Wilder said. 

“With the 70,000-hour bulbs in the new lights, I’m hoping I will retire before they need replaced again,” he said.

The relighting project only included the light fixtures that couldn’t be accessed by school staff.

“The ones that line the walls are a different type and were not in the contract,” Wilder said. “We can reach those with our lifts and ladders, so we can change those bulbs.”

The new LED lights can be dimmed, so folks may not notice a difference depending on how the lighting is set up at concerts, plays and events. It was already noticeably brighter in the back of the auditorium after crews had completed the first rows of lights.

“The light is much better,” Wilder said. “I can’t remember when all the bulbs worked, so I don’t know if it is brighter than when all the originals worked, but I suspect so.”

During the relighting project, the Bar T Electric and Safway Scaffolding crews worked closely together. Once the scaffolding was set, electric crews installed the new light fixtures.

“We work right behind them,” said Chad Lemmon, an electrician with Bar T.

Wilder said the scaffolding was one of the most expensive items in the bid, costing more than $20,000.

The extensive scaffolding system filled the auditorium.

“It’s like a giant erector set,” Lemmon said.

The school district worked with Bar T Electric to find a good time for the project. Part of the challenge was waiting on the availability of the light fixtures and also finding a time when students and staff weren’t using the auditorium.

The two-week window of the holiday break provided one of the few opportunities during the school year. Otherwise, it likely would have been put off until the summer.

Only one bid was received for the relighting project.

“This has been an extremely tough bidding environment this year,” Wilder told the school board in October. “Contractors and subcontractors have been socked with work this year.”

He said there was initial interest from three different contractors — two of them local — but only one submitted a bid.

The project was paid for with major maintenance funding, Wilder said.