At its meeting at 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, February 5, 2019, at the City Hall, the City of Oneonta Common Council will hear a presentation by representatives of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), a State agency, and Guth DeConzo Consulting Engineers, PC, a technical consultant to NYPA, concerning a proposal for the City to acquire all of the more than 1,000 street lights throughout the community that currently are owned by the New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and, after being purchased by the City, change over the street light system using new light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures.

This proposal is part of the State-sponsored “Smart Street Light NY” program, which is an effort to convert existing street lighting systems throughout New York for greater energy efficiency. As part of the program, NYPA is assisting local governments to purchase street lights that now are owned by private utilities and convert the utilities’ former street light systems to municipally-owned and municipally-maintained systems. NYPA officials and the Guth-DeConzo engineers will handle all of the details concerning the City’s purchase of the street lights from NYSEG, and NYPA and its consultant will oversee the hiring of a
contractor to remove the former NYSEG-owned street lights and install the City’s new lights, as well as the hiring of a contractor to later maintain and service the new lights.

In addition, NYPA will provide financing for the purchase of the street lighting system from NYSEG, as well as cover the costs of purchasing the new LED lights and installing them. The project-funding plan calls for the City to pay back NYPA over several years using savings to the City that would be derived from lower electricity costs – as a result of using more energy-efficient street lights – and from reductions in fees that now are charged the City by NYSEG for the City’s use of NYSEG -owned lights.

Total costs for purchasing the street lights from NYSEG, and installing new energy-efficient fixtures, have been estimated at $1,252,000, with savings to the City of about $125,000 annually. Cost savings to the City each year would be greater than the amounts of the City’s annual repayments to NYPA. Common Council Members would like to hear comments from the public concerning the proposed street lighting plan and invite the public’s participation at Tuesday’s meeting.

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