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Replacing street lights with LEDs to cost $750K

The Town of Southold is mulling over the idea of replacing its 1,434 street lights with LED bulbs and fixtures.

Initial calculations estimated the project cost at approximately $750,000 and completion time at two to three months. 

Currently, only one in seven street lights in the town are LED, and those have LED bulbs in conventional fixtures.

“We spend about $100,000 on street lighting and about $83,000 of that is attributable to these lamps,” said town engineer Michael Collins. “We think that in the first year we can shave $56,000 off of that number.”

Jeff Standish, director of public works for the town, said LED lights last longer and don’t require as much maintenance, freeing up employees for other tasks around the town. He also said hiring another person in his department would be beneficial. 

He added that when he looked into switching to LED fixtures years ago, it would have cost almost $2 million, but the price of materials has dropped significantly.

Fishers Island Justice Louisa Evans worried that some residents would complain about the lights being too bright. Mr. Collins said the lights would be “pretty yellow.”

He added that they are looking into a possible New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant to fund the project.

The board unanimously agreed that transitioning to LED bulbs and fixtures would be beneficial for the town in the long run, and gave the go-ahead for town engineers and the Department of Public Works to continue their research and come up with a complete cost and installation plan.