PleasantonWeekly.com : New street lights, telephone system costing ...

Uploaded: Tuesday, January 15, 2013, 7:57 AM ???????????????????????????????????????????? New street lights, telephone system costing $3.5 million on Pleasanton Council's agenda tonight Cost of converting street lights to light-emitting diodes (LED) to be paid through 1% low interest loan

by Jeb Bing Pleasanton Weekly Staff The Pleasanton City Council will consider proposals at its meeting tonight to spend $3.2 million for new energy-saving street lights throughout the city and another $310,799 for a new telephone system for city-owned and operated facilities. The energy-saving street light conversion is part of the city's Climate Action Plan the council adopted last year that includes a range of energy reducing goals, including those related to LED retrofit projects. Once installed, the cost savings can amount to a 60% reduction over current maintenance and electricity costs, according to a study by the Bay Area Climate Collaborative. Daniel Smith, director of Pleasanton's Operations Services, said the conversion to LEDs would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1,556 metric tons per year. The installation of a new telephone system at the Civic Center and Senior Center campuses and outlying facilities would improve communications significantly, according to a city staff report. It would also provide a convergence of various communication mediums, including voice, email, video and instant messaging for users whether in their offices or away, using a new ShorTel system that would replace the city's current Mitel system. The cost of the new system is estimated at $310,799 plus another $12,260 in sales taxes and an additional 10% project contingency to address enhanced features or system modifications that might become apparent during the implementation process. The council meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the Civic Center at 200 Old Bernal Ave. Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.

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Comments

Posted by ROI, a resident of the West of Foothill neighborhood, 8 hours ago Why can't the reporters also provide ROI information. Will the lights never save the city money? Is this only to reduce our carbon footprint? Has the city looked at other ways to offset the carbon footprint without spending so much?

Posted by Sam, a resident of the Oak Hill neighborhood, 8 hours ago "Why can't the reporters also provide ROI information. Will the lights never save the city money?" It would have been good if the article provided a link to some more information about the factors that went into the decisions, but I'm pretty sure that the change to LED lighting will pay for itself soon. I switched nearly all of my most frequently used household lights to LED light and have noticed a significant cost savings in electric bills. The LED lights will probably pay for themselves in just a few years. The city should notice a significant savings in their electric lighting bills as well. Also, since LED lights last many years longer than incandescent or halogen or fluorescent or carbon arc lights, the city will also reap a significant savings in maintenance costs by not having to frequently send workers to replace all those lights. Reducing the carbon footprint is just icing on the cake.

Posted by Sirena, a resident of the Val Vista neighborhood, 5 hours ago Fix the sidewalks first and the big pot holes on West Las Positias instead of closing one lane.

Posted by Taxes, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, 4 hours ago Really ?? is that tops on the city's list for spending ?? I hadn't noticed there is a problem. Danbury Park, aside from paying for tar coating their own private streets, also provides and pays for their own street lights, maintance, and lamp replacement. Yet each owner pays full valuation property taxes like every other Pleasanton resident. So although not receiving relief for these capital expenses, they do pay twice. Considering there aren't many new sources of funding on the horizon, I would hope there is a compelling need for replacement of a system, and not just an enviro idea that after the fact, we learn the savings aren't quite what they were cracked up to be.

Posted by The Mad Hatter, a resident of another community, 2 hours ago As someone who was involved in the initial LED light testing for the City back in 2009, I'm excited to see the City moving forward on this project. It depends on the final cost the City negotiated for the street lights, but when I was rough calculating the ROI for upgrading the City's lighting system to LED I was getting roughly 5-6 years if you averaged out all the lights in the City (lower wattage lighting typical in residential areas take longer to recover the operating costs, higher wattage typical on arterial streets recover their costs more quickly). This doesn't include cost savings due to reduced maintenance costs. There are some other great benefits of LED street light technology. First, we were projecting that the typical LED street light could last 10-15 years or longer on average, which would save significant maintenance costs over time and would last much longer than their high pressure sodium counterparts. The lighting "color rendering" is much more color neutral than typical street lights, resulting in street lighting that's easier on the eye and more in line with normal daylight (rather than the yellow/orange glow from standard lights). The initial light levels are a bit lower, but the light distribution on the pavement surface (efficiency) is significantly improved over traditional street lights. The result will be a more even lighting pattern and reduction of the "bright and dark" patterns that typically exist in between street lights. Finally, many of the LED manufacturer's street lights are recessed inside the street light housing, meaning little to no glare into neighboring windows or bedrooms. Once you see these in place I think you will be very pleasantly surprised and happy on their performance. And while they involve a considerable up front cost, these devices will ultimately save the City millions of dollars over the lifetime of the project. Congrats!

Source: http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=10708

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