A third party company will be hired to help the Town of Erin convert its street lights to LED.
Roads superintendent Greg Delfosse asked council at the Aug. 8 meeting to consider hiring a consultant for the project.
He said the town has three options. The first would have the town do the conversion internally and finance the replacement at its own expense. The second would be to hire a company to perform a lighting audit, propose a strategy and oversee the transition. The third would have a third party completely take over the system and manage it on the town’s behalf.
Delfosse said he does not recommend the first and third options.
“Where I struggle with the first two (options) is that there’s no comparative analysis for me to look at,” said councillor Matt Sammut, who asked what the cost difference would be between the first and second option.
“It’s hard to quantify that precisely,” said Delfosse.
“I think at the end of the day we’re hoping it’s going to be a nickels and dimes difference, but the reality is, we are going to be paying a consultant for their expertise.”
Ursula D’Angelo, director of finance, said it would only take three to four years for ratepayers to see a significant difference in the street light levy.
Sustainability
Councillor Jeff Duncan said this will help reduce the town’s ecological footprint and it is supported by the town’s environmental and sustainability advisory committee.
“I don’t think the issue here is whether we want to do it or not, I think we all want to do it, this has been on the plate for a long time, the issue is how do we do it,” said Sammut, asking for a comparative report to be brought back to council.
However, the recommendation to issue a request for proposal to initiate the transition was approved 4-1, with Sammut opposed.
“I was for pushing it back to staff, but that’s fine, I’ll vote nay on this,” he said.
The town has approximately 770 street lights, 39 being decorative and Defosse anticipates the cost for conversion at around $330,000.
