Wick Academy’s remaining floodlights have passed muster – but chairman Pat Miller says they are still considering replacing them.
One of the pylons at Harmsworth Park collapsed last month following Storm Malik.
After that the Scorries had the other seven floodlights inspected and they have been given the all-clear.
However, club chief Miller admits replacing all eight pylons is still something they will consider.
He said: “We’ve had the other pylons inspected and they’ve been deemed to be in decent shape.
“We’re just waiting on the insurance company to come back to us to see what costs they’ll cover for the pylon that came down.
“One has come down, but even though the others have been inspected it’s what remedial work you do to ensure they stay up.
“It gets complicated and we’ve looked at trying to reinforce our support structures.
“But experts tell me if you take the base of the pylon and move it up even a foot it changes the structure and how it flexes so it’s complicated.
“At the moment we’re in between replacing one or replacing all eight.
“With the help of the insurance company we can replace the one that came down with little or no cost.
“But if we were replacing all of them we would go with LED lightning which would give us a carbon neutral footprint.
“However, to do that you’re talking about the best part of £90,000 which is not something we have sitting about in the bank.”
Cost could be problem
The cost of upgrading their floodlights is the stumbling block for Wick.
But Miller says they are keen to explore possible funding options and added: “If we had a couple of years grace to explore funding options it could give us the chance to do it.
“It’s something that’s in the back of our heads.
“When something like this happen where one comes down it makes you starting thinking ‘our floodlights are 50 years plus, how much longer to the next storm?’
“The next storm always seems to be stronger winds and when you’re talking about a gale now it always seems to be 100mph.
“Ideally we would love to change all the floodlights, but it doesn’t look like that will happen in the near future.”
Lights will stay on this season
Wick have three home games remaining this season. They host Nairn County this Saturday before meeting Buckie Thistle and Huntly at Harmsworth Park.
Miller says they should be able to complete those fixtures without any problems.
He said: “We put the lights on one night when we had a committee meeting and you wouldn’t actually know that there was a pylon.
“We upgraded our lights 10 years ago and put in a higher lux in than was asked for.
“So apart from a dark spot near the corner flag you wouldn’t really know there was a light missing.”
