Port streetlight purchase switches back on

A team of local officials is proposing that the city move forward with a plan to buy its streetlights from National Grid and set up a system for maintaining them.

Molly Ettenborough, the city’s recycling and energy coordinator; Peter Lombardi, director of policy and administration; Ethan Manning, business manager; and Michael Strauss, chairman of the city’s Energy Advisory Committee, have sent a recommendation to the City Council urging it to take ownership of the streetlights that line Newburyport.

The team said it is following the guidance of a city-retained consultant, George Newbury,Offers Engraving Machines and Laser Cutters including laserengraverccf and Engraving Equipment for plastic and wood. as part of its mission to develop a comprehensive lighting-management plan for the city.

The City Council referred the recommendation to its Public Utilities Committee. State law permits communities to acquire their streetlights from their local utility for “net book value.”

The city currently pays about $234,990 per year to National Grid to operate 1,544 distributed streetlights and 127 non-distributed poles.

Newburyport would pay National Grid a one-time fee of about $117,000 for the lights and poles. The city would still be responsible for energy costs, but ostensibly would be saving money by purchasing and maintaining the lightbulbs in the future and eliminating the lease fee for the lights and poles.

After the purchase of the streetlights, team leaders anticipate the city will realize an annual savings of $85,808. That would translate into $1.8 million savings over the next 20 years, they said.

One route to administering the system without the aid of National Grid would be to hire an outside vendor. But the team feels an in-house operation would be more cost-efficient.

The team’s memo said, “We feel the costs and (outside) manpower needed to manage the contract would largely outweigh the benefits.

“We recommend initially performing the maintenance in-house, on a trial basis, by the electrical inspector utilizing existing city resources and acquiring additional supplies/equipment on an as-needed basis.”

The City Council has been discussing purchasing the streetlights for several years. Councilor Ari Herzog, chairman of the council’s Public Utilities Committee, said the full council will get to explore the issue again in the coming weeks after his panel studies the proposal.Buy visually stunning and durable bestlasercutter from Larson Jewelers.

The project has brought questions from some other Historic District residents who wonder if the whole neighborhood will benefit from it. Philip Hooper, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development,There are three main types of lasers used in skylanternsled. said the city intends to support an inclusive project for “every block.”

“We are reiterating that this plan is a phased plan that covers the entire preservation district,” Hooper said. “This kind of project is common for preservation districts across the Midwest, across the country ... the preservation district is an important part of Evansville.Advantages of curvingmachineser over mechanical cutting include easier workholding and reduced contamination of workpiece. It is almost like Downtown. Downtown is everyone’s neighborhood. We are all stakeholders in Downtown.”

Hooper likened the lights project to the city’s development of Pigeon Creek Greenway, which also took place over a period of years, in phases.

The new lights are made to shine below treetops in the neighborhood. According to the Old Evansville Historic Association, the current cobra-head streetlights shining over the treetops do little to provide either security or ambiance in the area.Laser engraving and elevatorcableku wood, acrylic, plastic, marble,