City to install LED street light bulbs, discuss sewer rate increase

Sarah Brown

The City Council approved during its Aug. 8 meeting a contract with Ameresco to install energy efficient bulbs in the city’s 881 street lights. The move is expected to reduce electrical costs to the city by approximately $40,000 a year.

Last year the city paid $130,552 in electricity for the high pressure sodium (HPS) and mercury vapor (MV) bulbs currently installed. The lights are owned and maintained by Pacific Power, but the company only upgrades to LED fixtures when the old bulbs burn out.

Ameresco told City Council in March 2021 it could work out an agreement to upgrade the lights. In November 2022, the council approved a $26,866 contract for Ameresco to conduct an audit of the system. The audit revealed the conversion to LED bulbs would result in an estimated annual savings of $40,000 or more, in addition to an estimated one-time $90,000 rebate offered through the Energy Trust of Oregon.

The contract with Ameresco includes a 12-year repayment schedule that pays the company a total of approximately $636,762, but the city will “pocket,” or save, approximately $30,736 in electricity during that period. After that, the city expects to see $58,000 or more in electrical cost savings each year.

Ultimately, Ameresco will receive the $90,000 rebate and most of the cost savings from the city for 12 years to upgrade all of Sweet Home’s street lights to the more efficient bulb, but the city will still save another $2,000 or more each year.

Mayor Susan Coleman told The New Era this move is a way to quickly improve the city by providing efficient lighting that allows people to see the stars better. Also, she said, the current bulbs automatically turn off when they overheat, but the LED lights will stay on all night.

The company will begin installing the new bulbs this month and expects to have the project completed by December.

In other business, the council discussed options for a possible sewer rate increase.

City Manager Kelcey Young explained a design for the new waste treatment plant has been completed, as has an environmental and biologic assessment. The city also began demolishing the old silo and biofilter, and completed the construction of a new sludge blend tank.

“This has been a huge undertaking,” Young said. “I wanted to congratulate Public Works for where they are already at. It really has been a lot of hard work. You should’ve seen some of the meetings where everyone’s almost in tears but working through it to figure out how to make it happen. It’s been very inspiring to watch.”

The city is looking at grants and loans to help fund the completion of the process, but with the loans comes the question of how to pay them back, she said.

Finance Director Matt Brown recommended the council adopt a three percent rate increase (about $1.23 for the average customer) on waste treatment service every year to cover the expense of a loan.

During the past decade or so, the city had some years where it didn’t raise rates due mainly to the economy at the time, Councilor Greg Mahler said, but the council would then find themselves in a position of need to adopt a high rate increase.

In hindsight, he said, the council should’ve maintained a four percent increase each year to avoid high spikes.

“Ideally we like to see and recommend average increases of one to four percent every single year,” Brown said. “It’s slow, moderate increases. The reason we do that is to avoid big spikes.”

The last rate increase for waste treatment was in 2016.

Young said the council will further discuss and perhaps decide on a recommended rate increase during the September council meeting.

“It’s not something we want to do. It’s something I think we need to do,” Councilor Dave Trask said.

Following a comment by Councilor Dylan Richards, who said he opposed any rate increases at this time, Young explained the wastewater system is failing and resulting in environmental fines to the city. Further failure of the system could result not only in more fines, but also hazards to fish and residents downstream.

“We have to fix our wastewater treatment plant if we want to continue to be a successful community,” Young said.

“It is the duty of this governing body to provide infrastructure that works for the community and our citizens,” Coleman added.

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