By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
The town of Lysander is moving forward with a long-planned conversion of 592 streetlights to LED. The Lysander Town Board voted Nov. 20 to approve a bond resolution to buy the lights from National Grid and sign a contract with the John W. Danforth Company to complete the conversion.
Lysander will bond for $1,854,218 to cover the National Grid buyout, conversion and soft costs (engineering and legal fees). The town will pay Danforth $674,465 for the conversion.
The life of the bond is 15 years with an interest rate of 3.5%. Town Engineer Al Yager estimated the annual cost of maintenance for the LED lights at 5% of the conversion cost.
The tax impact of the debt service varies based on each of the town’s 19 lighting districts, but most districts will see a tax decrease, especially once Lysander is able to secure grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Currently, Lysander pays National Grid more than $200,000 each year for maintenance. Yager said he reported only seven lights needing repairs last year.
“The sooner we move forward with this, the sooner we get the conversion completed, the sooner the residents start seeing the benefit of not throwing money at National Grid every month,” Yager said.
Yager said the LED lights have a useful life span of about 20 years. Depending on the fixture, each light costs between $380 and $1,000.
Danforth will verify National Grid’s inventory of the town’s streetlights. The town is hoping to begin work on the conversion in April or May of 2020.
In the future, Yager said, developers will be asked to cover the cost of LED streetlights in addition to other necessary infrastructure.
“Going forward, I’m going to recommend that the town board amend the town code to require lights in addition to all the other utilities included in the subdivision to be paid for by the developer. Obviously, we would want to install those lights when the tract is first accepted,” Yager said.
