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To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions. Solar Street Lights Outdoor
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
All obituaries appear on TwinCities.com with a permanent online guestbook presence. If you wish to have the online presence removed, you can contact us to remove the guestbook online. Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Must receive obituary content and payment same day by 4:30PM
Must receive photo(s) by 4:30PM
Must receive obituary content and payment same day by 1:30PM
Must receive photo(s) by 1:30PM
Must receive obituary content, payment, and final changes same day by 2:30PM
Must receive photo(s) by 2:30PM
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Please call or email us for more memoriam information
Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.
HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)
Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.
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Does a blue light keep you up at night? No, it’s not an alien invasion. The city of St. Paul has been gradually replacing LED street lights suffering from an unusual manufacturer’s defect — they’re turning blue.
The Autobahn series LED bulbs, which are failing prematurely at different times and rates, were installed in “cobra”-style overhanging street lights across the city between 2017 and 2019 and cast a bluish-purple light as they begin to fail.
“We tend to notice a few more with the colder weather,” said Lisa Hiebert, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works.
The problems have been reported far and wide, including Charlotte, North Carolina, Topeka, Kansas, Vancouver, Canada and Dublin, Ireland.
Hiebert said the city does not closely track how many lights have been replaced to date — the total is easily in the dozens — but the city’s street lighting system spans more than 37,000 light fixtures on 32,000 light poles. Of course, not all of them received new LED bulbs between 2017 and 2019.
Residents can report their blue lights to have the bulb replaced with a non-defective light from the manufacturer by calling the city’s street lights division at 651-266-9777. More information is online at stpaul.gov/streetlights under the heading “Why are the Street Lights Purple?”
On social media, residents have debated the romanticism and general aesthetic of the dying street lights, which some have said cast a comforting glow as they reflect on the snow beneath them. Others say they make visibility difficult.
If bluish-purple night lighting isn’t your thing, don’t expect the color to revert to orange. Since at least 2021, the city has been replacing its High-Pressure-Sodium (HPS) bulbs with LED bulbs, which use less energy and contribute less to carbon emissions.
The LED lights are said to produce a higher quality light and last longer. They also contain no mercury, reducing hazardous waste disposal.
Solar Street Light With Battery LEDs tend to shine whiter than the HPS lights, which cast a yellow to orange hue. Also worth keeping in mind: Alley lights are not maintained by the city. They’re installed and maintained by Xcel Energy at the request of adjacent property owners.