Gallery of Lights
The Site => General discussion => Topic started by: chapman84 on July 24, 2017, 07:45:13 PM
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The Pittsburgh Press S9 Thursday, August 27, 1987 Future dimming for incandescent street light problem in September. When many communities did not contact the utility about what could be done, he said, follow-up letters were sent last month saying that West Penn had received state Public Utility Commission approval to stop servicing the lights after Dec. 31, 1989. The 1989 deadline was set with the idea of giving municipalities enough time to decide what they want to do, Bomblatus said. He said municipalities can choose to replace the lights with mercury or sodium, reduce the number of lights, or do nothing. However, Bomblatus said the last option may lead the utility to cancel service contracts when West Penn can no longer maintain the old lights. There are a 6,378 incandescent lights in 158 municipalities in West Perm's service area, he said. Most of the incandescent lights are in residential or rural-residential areas. Mercury vapor lights provide more than twice the candlepower of incandescent lights, and sodium lights produce nearly three times more illumination. Bridgeville Manager Charles Bergensky said the borough gradually plans to replace 15 remaining incandescent lights with mercury vapor lights.
"The incandescent lights we have will go bad from time to time or get knocked out, and at that time; as it happens, we will replace them he said. ' Bergensky said the new lights' will present only "a negligible increase-in cost, given the total number of lights" in the town. The borough, he said, has two alternatives: raise the additional money through a property reassessment or court-approved tax increase, or remove street lights to hold down costs. In West Elizabeth, one of the few south suburban communities that still has incandescent lights, officials also are considering removing some lights to cut the cost of replacing 57 incandescent lights that are more than 20 years old. "When PennDot did its work on the Elizabeth Bridge, they put new lights at our end of the bridge that light a portion of our town on First, Second and Third streets," said Chuck McDevitt, borough secretary. "People who live there tell me it's almost like daylight down there. We'll see whether we can eliminate some lights down there, and maybe keep our costs down." McDevitt said the borough will delay replacing the incandescent lights "until we have to do it, in order to delay the increase in costs." . He said he couldn't be specific about the cost of replacing the lights or operating the new ones. West Penn officials consider the incandescent lights obsolete. "Incandescent lighting is like having a Model T car today," Bomblatus said. "We can't keep them going anymore because the fixtures are no longer being made and parts are no longer available. They've reached the point where they're falling apart and something has to be done."
Bomblatus said municipalities were originally notified of the parts By Jim Wilhelm The Pittsburgh Press West Penn Power Co.'s decision to stop maintaining antiquated incandescent street lights by the end of 1989 may cause a hardship for some communities. Ken Bomblatus, supervisor of commercial activities for West Penn, said the decision was prompted by a lack of replacement parts for the incandescent light fixtures, which use high-wattage light bulbs, and also a concern for energy efficiency. Replacing the 200-watt incandescent street lights with mercury vapor high-pressure sodium street will increase light output and reduce the amount of energy used, he said. However, the mercury and sodium lights cost substantially more to operate than incandescent lights. Municipalities pay 12.39 per month for maintenance and electricity for sodium street lights and $8.49 for mercury vapor lights. By comparison, Incandescent lights cost only $6.62 per month, he said. As a result, some communities report they may be forced to raise taxes or eliminate street lights to pay for higher street lighting costs.