By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — The City’s goal of saving about $33,000 through turning off some streetlights is about halfway to completion, and the next 100 streetlights should be turned off in roughly the next two weeks.
With about 550 lights in the city, turning off a total of about 190 is anticipated to save the city roughly $30,000 — an idea that the city council approved back in January.
“What we’re trying to do is maximize savings while minimizing the impact to public safety,” explained City Manager Austin Bleess.
Some community members have posed the question, “how do you decide which lights to turn out?”
Enter Caribou’s officials with a safety specialization — Caribou’s Police Chief Michael Gahagan, Fire Chief Scott Susi, Director of Public Works David Ouellette and Bleess. They all looked closely at the lights this past fall and into the winter, scrutinizing which streetlights could be turned out with the least impact to the community.
“Where possible, we’re trying to take every other streetlight, keep the intersections lit and focus mainly on the middle of blocks,” Bleess explained. Illumination in Caribou’s downtown is mostly intact, while some of the more rural portions of the city will see a little more of night.
The benefits of fewer streetlights can mean a lower bottom line for Caribou’s budget and a means to help the city save even more money down the line through the eventual purchase of energy efficiency streetlights.
As the city council discussed in January, some of the cost-savings will used to reduce the expense budget and a portion of the saved-funds will be placed into a reserve account to be used at a later date to purchased LED lights for the city-owned streetlights, which are predominantly in the downtown area.
Bleess said that Maine Public Service is looking at energy efficient measures on their street lights as well; a lot of the lights in Caribou are owned by Maine Public Service, and the city pays fees for electrical usage and to use the streetlights; by placing a portion of cost-savings in reserve to eventually replace Caribou-owned streetlights with LED’s, the city is looking to use about 70 percent less energy on illumination.
“The savings today will benefit us in the long term, and we’re actively working with Maine Public Servce to get LED lights,” Bleess said.
Those with questions as to who turned off the lights and why are welcome to attend City Council meetings on the second and fourth Monday of each month, at 7 p.m. in the Councilor’s Chambers.
