Waterfall gets light show treatment
CAMBRIDGE — Galt can bask in the nightly glow of its $2-million lit-up pedestrian bridge across the Grand River.
In Hespeler, the price of colourful illumination is a modest $20,000.
Lighting will stream across the Speed River dam waterfall — roaring above an old grist mill turned tub factory, being turned into condos — on Wednesday night.
The light show, featuring rotating colours every 30 seconds or so, is set to debut around 9:30 p.m.
“It is bright. It is vibrant. It’s exciting,” said village resident and business owner Cory de Villiers, vice-chair of its business improvement area.
“For those people who aren’t in the know, who aren’t part of the
20,000 who have taken a look at the video, they’re just going to be blown away.”
A video of the test run in April is on the BIA’s Facebook page.
“So far, it’s got an awesome reaction,” de Villiers said.
A year ago, de Villiers and other BIA members were discussing Mayor Doug Craig’s “Back to the Rivers” initiative. Hespeler’s light-up-the-dam idea started to take shape as the plan for the pedestrian bridge over the Grand River took form.
“We thought it was a great opportunity to follow his lead and do something a little aspirational in Hespeler,” de Villiers said. “We definitely saw that we’re not making the most of this river that we have.”
Maybe that’s why, years ago, notorious Hespeler booster Ken Boyle lobbied to have electricity service put into the Jacobs Landing park, across the Speed from the old grist mill Jacob Hespeler built in 1847.
Boyle, who died two years ago, also worked to have flood lights put up on a pole in the area.
That pole is now being used for more powerful lights to brighten up the modest falls, maybe a dozen feet or so high.
“We just got commercialgrade, high-end programmable lighting put up,” de Villiers said.
“Six individual lights on top of that existing pole.”
A stainless steel box nearby controls power to the area.
An attached control module allows the BIA to change colours and timing of the lighting via a computer program to fit the occasion.
“For St. Patrick’s Day, that thing is going to be lit up bright green,” he said.
“For breast cancer awareness month in October, it’ll be pink.”
The BIA and city, de Villiers said, are splitting the cost of the lights.
“We think it’s just another positive thing that’s happening down here in the village.”