PORTLAND, Maine — City Electrician Dan McMahan isn’t afraid of heights. Or if he is, he hides it well.
On Monday morning, McMahan stood atop a small platform six-or-so stories above Hadlock Field, where the Sea Dogs play. Unfazed by the distance between himself and the ground, McMahan was busy cleaning lenses and screwing in basketball-sized light bulbs.
The lights are part of a nearly 300,000-watt system illuminating evening baseball games for the Sea Dogs and stadium mates Portland High School. Every two years, for more than a decade, he’s replaced all 192 bulbs.
This might be the last year.
Portland has plans to replace the lights with longer-lasting, more efficient LEDs. It was supposed to happen this year. The city originally set aside $550,000 for the project in this year’s fiscal budget. But, in April, according to the Forecaster, it was cut. Instead, the money went to remediation work at the Ocean Avenue landfill, a sidewalk repair fund and repairs to Stroudwater Dam off Westbrook Street.
Mayor Ethan Strimling floated an idea that a surcharge on Sea Dogs tickets might pay for new lights. Nothing has come of the notion, though.
McMahan said the sky-high light fixtures are the originals from 1994. They take a beating every winter and could stand to be replaced. That’s not happening this year, but it will likely happen soon.
Until then, he’ll keep replacing the old-fashioned bulbs. Each one packs 1,500 watts of power and a serious amount of heat.
“You turn one of these on and you’ll get a tan,” McMahan joked.
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