Aurora aldermen are set to vote on purchasing material to replace more street lights with energy efficient lighting.
The City Council is set to authorize the city’s purchasing department to spend up to $300,000 to convert as many as 639 existing lighting fixtures to LED lights.
The expenditure is part of the latest round of the city’s participation in the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program Grants, which offers an incentive of 70 cents a watt for converting existing street lights to the more energy efficient LED lights.
“This is part of the ComEd incentive program we’ve been chasing for about three years,” said Ken Schroth, Aurora’s Public Works director, to aldermen this week.
Schroth said in a memo to aldermen that the majority of the fixtures to be replaced during this round of upgrades are on arterial and major collector routes. Those are the first priority for the city due to the high number of vehicles that travel those roads and the safety issues that are involved.
In addition, the city is doing some replacements in TIF District No. 5, and in the 8th Ward. In the TIF district, some money was available, and in the 8th Ward, Ald. Richard Mervine, 8th Ward, put up $25,000 in ward funds for some specific replacements.
The ComEd incentive should result in payment to the city of $100,321.90, which should be received in early 2019, Schroth said.
The reason the council will authorize up to $300,000 in expenditures is in case other aldermen decide to use ward funds as part of this year’s street light program.
Depending upon the timing and value of the requested inclusion, the additional fixtures could be part of this year’s program or the anticipated spring 2019 program, Schroth said.
“We try to do them evenly for all the wards,” he said.
