The plan to buy the town’s streetlights from Eversource for $200,000 will eliminate the annual maintenance costs—around $70,000—that the town now pays to the utility to maintain them. If at the same time, the town converts the sodium-vapor bulbs to LED bulbs, the town also will receive energy conservation incentive payments while also reaping the rewards of lower electricity costs for the more efficient bulbs—resulting in a win-win-win.

This was the plan that First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., discussed with the Board of Selectmen at the Board of Selectmen meeting of Feb. 7, and with the Board of Finance (BOF) later that same evening. BOF members expressed support, but asked for more information.

Specifically, the BOF wanted to see estimates of the annual streetlight maintenance costs the town would face once it owns the streetlights and Eversource is no longer responsible. Fortuna said he would return to the BOF to present more information about projected streetlight maintenance costs as well as with a financing plan for the entire streetlight purchase and LED conversion project.

For the LED conversion work, the town would likely hire one of several firms now doing this work for municipalities around the state.

Regarding pole maintenance costs, for any streetlight mounted on a pole to which is attached other utility infrastructure such as electric, cable, or telephone wires, the town would not be responsible for replacing the pole if it were damaged. If a streetlight is the only item mounted on the pole, the town would then be responsible for maintaining the pole. Fortuna said the town has 90 poles that don’t have any utility wires attached to them.

The town would be responsible for replacing any streetlight bulb that failed, no matter whether a pole had utility infrastructure on it or not.

Currently the town’s capital non-recurring fund, savings set aside by the town to pay cash for municipal projects like this, contains $560,000. Fortuna already planned to tap this fund to pay for two other town projects: the purchase of the Municity permitting software program and associated support services, and for work to repaint the Youth & Family Services building’s exterior. After these bills are paid, the account will still have savings remaining in it. On July 1, the annual town budget contribution of $150,000 to this fund will help to rebuild this account.

“To purchase the streetlights costs $200,000. If you retrofit the streetlights with LEDs, it costs $350,000. However, you get a $90,000 energy [conservation] incentive payment from Eversource” for converting to LEDs, explained Fortuna in describing the plan to the selectmen. “If we were to buy the lights, and finance $200,000 up from the municipal reserve, we could then do a three-year loan, and each year we’re saving $100,000 in electricity costs.

“There are a couple of different ways to do it. It is simply a question of how to finance it,” said Fortuna. “Eversource estimated that we would save $70,000 a year just due to a rate change [for having] LEDs,” said Fortuna.

Fortuna said that he would return to both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance within the next month with a purchase and financing plan for the streetlight purchase and LED conversion project.

Once both the BOS and the BOF vote to approve the plan, it would go to the Town Meeting for action.