At a March 6 Town Meeting, electors authorized up to $585,000 for town purchase of its streetlights, now owned by Eversource, and conversion of the existing sodium-vapor streetlights to energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lights. Eversource’s price to sell the town’s 1,080 streetlights is $200,000. The rest of the project funding the town vote authorized, $385,000, will be used to buy the new LED bulbs and pay for a qualified firm to install them.

“We will be calling in three vendors [for] the LED conversion project,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr.

Before the Town can evaluate contractors who can complete the LED streetlight conversion, Fortuna said the Board of Selectmen has to pick an LED bulb vendor, choose a Kelvin rating for the bulbs—this rating influences the color and perceived brightness of the bulb’s light—and pick an appropriate wattage for the streetlights.

The wattage could vary by specific installation locations. How bright an LED streetlight appears to viewers is a function of both its Kelvin rating and its wattage. LED streetlight bulbs of a lower wattage than a comparable sodium-vapor light can provide a similar perceived level of street illumination.

An Eversource pilot project to convert streetlights it owns to LED bulbs put some LED lights on poles on Sheffield Street in town. On a parallel track across the state, the utility is in the process of converting old sodium vapor streetlights it owns to LED bulbs.

Fortuna has in the past said that the town would save about $70,000 a year by owning its streetlights and converting to LEDs. The savings would be realized through the town no longer paying Eversource’s annual maintenance fee and the new LED lights’ decreased use of electricity. Other towns that have completed LED streetlight conversions report that the cost to the town to maintain the streetlights itself is significantly lower than the prior Eversource charges.

If a streetlight is on a pole to which electric, cable, or telephone wires are attached, the town would not be responsible for replacing the pole if it were damaged. Once the town owned the streetlights, only damaged poles without utility wires on them would have to be replaced at the town’s expense. Fortuna previously said that of the 1,080 streetlights in town, only 90 are on poles with no other utility wires.

One offset to the town’s cost is a promised Eversource rebate incentive payment of $81,000. Rebate incentives are offered to encourage electricity users to make capital improvements, like LED bulb conversions, that reduce electricity use.

In the town’s current year’s budget of 2016-’17, the budget for traffic and streetlights is $165,000. Once the town owns the streetlights and has installed the energy-efficient LED bulbs, the town’s annual Eversource bill will drop by about $75,000.

Fortuna explained at the March 6 Town Meeting that he was examining several options for financing the streetlight conversion project’s initial costs. For example, if the town were to finance the entire project, the return on investment—the payback—would be 3.4 years. If instead the town partially financed the project, the payback would be sooner at about 2.4 years.

The Town Meeting resolution authorized the town to borrow a sum not to exceed $470,000 “by the execution of a promissory note or notes from a bank. The said promissory note or notes are to be paid back over a three to five year period.” The funds to buy the streetlights from Eversource would come in whole or in part from the Municipal Reserve Fund (referred to also as the Capital Non-Recurring Fund).

The BOS’s goal is to complete the streetlight conversion project by fall 2017 and start reaping the operating savings.

Other March 6 Actions

In addition to the town streetlight appropriation, other items were also on the March 6 Town Meeting Call for elector action.

First was to amend the Town Code for bidding to match the town’s bidding procedures to requirements of construction projects that receive state or federal funds. Those projects usually require that towns not give preference to local vendors in the bidding process. This change approved by the town’s electors will only apply to those projects funded by a state or federal grant or loan whose award stipulations include restrictions on local vendor preference. For other town projects, the preference as written in the town’s bidding procedure remains in force.

Another action approved by the town’s electors was to approve an appropriation of $125,000 for the Saybrook Junction Infrastructure Planning Project, “a Connecticut Office of Policy and Management reimbursable grant,” also known as a Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented grant. The grant funds will be used to design streetscapes and sidewalks to improve Stage Road from the Shopping plaza on Route One to North Main Street.

The final action approved at the Town Meeting was to amend Chapter 128 of the Old Saybrook Town Code titled Flood Management. The changes made will allow applicants “to avoid the need for a variance when the flood ordinance conflicts with the town or state codes. The proposal allows heat to be installed under certain circumstances below Base Flood Elevation (BFE) and to not require structures currently meeting BFE to elevate to meet freeboard requirements for new construction. The proposed changes will require critical facilities to meet 400-year flood election [sic] requirements.”