Lanesborough Looking To Dim The Lights
 The Board of Selectmen met briefly on Monday night. |
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Nights will be getting darker in Lanesborough.
The town is looking to shut off 51 street lights a committee determined were unneeded. Once shut down, the town's electric bill is expected to decrease by $4,800.
According to Selectman Robert Ericson, the town spends about $30,000 a year keeping the streetlights on and an energy committee has spent about a year auditing the town's 305 lights. The audit sought to fix billing errors and identify light fixtures for repair or removal.
Fifty-one of those lights have been identified for removal because they were not in populated areas — many are on dead-end roads and illuminating streets in unpopulated areas.
Ericson said some lights were removed from the list because there are in places where people congregate and lights at intersections are slated to be kept.
The Selectmen are now asking the townspeople to review the list and submit comment before they are shut off.
"Right now we are in Phase 1," said Town Administrator Paul Sieloff.
Selectman John Goerlach said he already knows of residents on Cheshire Road, Alice Avenue and Old State Road who will oppose the lights being shut off.
Last week, the board considered the idea of allowing residents to add the cost to their property taxes if they want an unneeded light to stay on. However, that idea had not been fully vetted and was put on the back burner.
The committee will continue looking at lights and identifying more to shut off. Selectman Henry Sayers, new to the board, said he knows of more that can shut off to save money.
"I don't know if this went far enough," Sayers said. "There are a lot of dead-end streets with lights on them that could be removed."
In other business, the proposed solar project on Prospect Street has stalled after the town received only one bid on the project that ultimately wouldn't save the town much money.
The town proposed using a Prospect Street property, purchased years ago and eyed for a senior housing complex, as a possible site for a solar array. However, Ericson says the only bid that came in wouldn't reduce the town's electric usage and the Selectmen rejected the proposal.
"We only got one bid. We looked at the numbers and the numbers were not profitable to Lanesborough," Ericson said. "Our suggestion is that we don't accept any of the bids."
Ericson said changes in the solar market in the last year and a half since the town began looking at the project and a "glut" of projects led to only a few bids. That project is now "in hibernation" until the committee decides a next step.
"We'll be going back to square one and see what's next," Ericson said.
• The Selectmen approved Berkshire Running Center's second Steel Rail Half Marathon on May 18, 2014. The race starts at the Berkshire Mall and goes north on the Ashuwilticook Rail Trail to Adams. The race will begin at 9:30 a.m.
• The Selectmen announced that the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee's building committee is looking for representatives for a community outreach task force and a feasibility task force. The positions are part of the new school project the School Committee has been pursuing.
• Also regarding the high school, the Selectmen have scheduled a public hearing on the school's budget for March 10.
• Sieloff reported that Lanesborough will participate in the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission's application for a District Local Technical Aid grant for a countywide study of municipal IT systems. The study would hope to organize towns to work together for group purchases and use common software to work together. Sponsoring the grant will have "no cost to the town, no work for me but benefits the entire county," Seiloff said.
Lanesborough Steet Light Audit
Tags: solar project, street lights,
