NARROWSBURG, NY — The future may indeed be brighter in Tusten, at least when one walks or drives at night. That is because the town is pursuing a changeover to LED lighting for the street lamps for which it is responsible.

Jesse Scott from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) presented a plan to the board in which the town would assume ownership and maintenance responsibility for the street lamps currently owned and maintained by New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG). With an annual maintenance cost of nearly $14,000, the town has been seeking a brighter and more cost-effective means of illumination.

Under the NYPA proposal, the town would buy out the existing arms and lamps that are attached to NYSEG utility poles. NYSEG would retain ownership of the utility poles and the town would lease space on them. Light bulbs would be replaced with LED lamps, which according to Scott, fail at a rate of about 1% a year. Since the town has approximately 100 street lights for which it is responsible, the failure of one lamp per year could be handled by a local electrician at a cost of a few hundred dollars rather than by

NYSEG.

The pole space would be leased from

NYSEG at 50 cents per attachment. The approximately $90,000 cost to purchase the system would be financed with no out-of-pocket cash outlay, and payback would be approximately eight years. The immediate savings to the town would be between $1,000 and $3,000 in the early years and approximately $10,000 per year after the eighth year. 

Additional economies of scale could be achieved if the project were pursued jointly with other towns in the county. Currently Bethel and Liberty are considering such a changeover, and Fallsburg has been approached as well.

The new lighting would be controllable as to brightness and if desired, cameras could be added. The project would take five to six months to complete.

Such a conversion would earn the town points in its quest to become certified as an energy-efficient town, which creates possibilities for grant money that would otherwise not be available to it.

In other matters, Supervisor Carol Ropke Wingert reported that the town was awarded $75,000 in grant monies for the installation of a new roof on the town hall.

A Halloween curfew will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on October 30 and 31.