There are lights at the end of the tunnel for Butler’s Main Street, but no installations are likely for 2012, according to city officials.

The city removed 48 lights from Main Street’s sidewalks about a year ago, citing safety concerns, as at least 15 were rusted through and in danger of falling.

The bases of many of those 25-year-old lamp posts, some covered by plastic and others turned into makeshift ashtrays by pedestrians, still sit along Main Street between Brady and Penn streets.

Butler Mayor Maggie Stock said Tuesday that replacing the street lights is “on the city’s radar” for 2012 and that Jill Kraus, a member of Butler Downtown’s design committee, is looking into lighting designs that will combine effective lighting and energy efficiency with the aesthetic achieved by lamp posts along Butler’s Wayne Street Viaduct and Gen. Richard Butler Bridge.

“When we (replace the lights), we want something that’s going to last for the next 50 years,” Stock said.

Once a design is determined, she said, an engineering study will determine the cost of installing the new lights.

The city currently is saving about $3,000 per month in energy costs by not having the 48 lights that were taken down along Main Street. The city was charged a flat rate by Allegheny Power, now West Penn Power, to power the unmetered lights.

New lamps would be metered, requiring street excavation to install the necessary wiring grid.