MEXICO — New streetlights could line roads in the coming months, replacing existing lamps with energy-efficient LED fixtures.
However, unlike other towns in Maine doing so, the Mexico Board of Selectmen is looking to go through Central Maine Power for the conversion project to avoid maintenance responsibilities and costs.
Town Manager Jack Gaudet said Thursday there will be a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, to see whether the town will enter into a 15-year contract with a CMP proposal to change the town’s streetlights to LED.
Tasha Raymond, key account manager for CMP, will be present to answer questions about the program.
The public hearing will take place downstairs in the Town Hall. If approved by voters, the select board will vote to move forward with the program at the regular board meeting that follows.
Gaudet said the town leases 317 streetlights from CMP. He said the town paid more than $51,000 for streetlights in 2017. The potential cost savings with LEDs would be more than $12,400, or around 25 percent.
He said some towns are set to go with this program in the first quarter of 2019. “If we get this done fairly quickly, we could get into the second quarter of the year.”
Gaudet and Selectman Cliff Steward met with CMP in December to discuss the streetlight proposal.
At the selectmen meeting Dec. 14, board Chairman Richard Philbrick asked what Stewart thought of the proposal.
“It seems like one of those, ‘It’s too good to be true,’” Stewart said.
According to the CMP representative, there’s no cost to the town. They’ll just come and replace your lights, and the lights are cheaper to lease, and use less electricity.
“There’s a savings on both sides,” Stewart said.
Philbrick asked, “So we don’t have to pay anything even when they change it?”
Stewart said the only downside was the length of the contract. “If there were other companies in the area, we might be a little hesitant, but CMP is the only company in the area now and in the foreseeable future.”
Philbrick said, “In the future, this is going to save us, so I think this is the best way to go.”
Gaudet said CMP is looking at it as a savings from the maintenance side because the LEDs last longer.
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