Council gave the nod to a proposal by ATCO regarding the streetlights at their Oct. 24 council meeting.
After the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Quinton Flint said council agreed to go with the plan introduced by ATCO for the lights which means that the electric company will own the power poles and the lights.
He said council agreed to go with the plan as it could be very costly to have halogen lights replaced and also that type of light is now becoming difficult to obtain.
In an email, Mayor Ron Checkel said selling the streetlights to ATCO would save the town money in the future.
“If the town owns the lights we would have to pay for any replacement of poles and or lights. So, the majority decided to sell the remaining lights to ATCO and avert the future cost of replacing them (estimated at $612,000 in 2022 dollars).
“Also, there is a program out there where ATCO would convert the lights over to LED lighting and this would save the town some on electricity costs,” he said.
Due to the fact that there are some unknowns regarding the costs the town would incur associated with the ATCO conversion program and also to ascertain how much funding is available through a federal grant, council has requested a light study be completed.
“There are quite a few unknowns at this point,” Flint said. “It could be up to a year before the plan is put in place.”
There are 102 streetlights in Coronation.
Treena Mielke
ECA Review
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