”
Dear Red Phone, I saw on TV that the Click It Or Ticket campaign
is coming up. Did the public get any notice of that in town?
”
“Dear Red Phone, I saw on TV that the Click It Or Ticket campaign is coming up. Did the public get any notice of that in town?”
Red Phone: Dear Buckle Up, yes, there was local notification. The Times ran a news brief on page A5 in the May 25 edition and posted the story online.
The campaign runs through Sunday, so a warning to all motorists. Stay buckled up. A first-time offense will now cost an adult $142 and any adult caught with an unrestrained child will pay $445. Ouch!
New street light conversion underway
“Hi Red Phone, can you tell me anything about the new street lights on E. Dunne Avenue. Are they more efficient than the old ones? Thanks!”
Red Phone: Dear Efficient, Red Phone contacted Jay Jaso with the city’s public works department. He said a cost-cutting initiative endorsed by the City Council for the change-out of street lights from high pressure sodium vapor to light emitting diode will reduce the electricity costs of street lights by about 50 percent, according to Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft.
“The electricity cost for the city’s 3,694 streetlights is the largest single activity-expense for the operating budget of the streets division,” said Ashcraft. “These costs account for nearly a quarter of the division’s total budget. Reducing the costs of electricity will free up funds for other priorities.”
Currently, the city’s street lights utilize HPSV lamps which use sodium under high pressure to create a pinkish-orange light when the sodium is fully warmed. LEDs are not the most efficient form of lighting, but their extremely long life makes them more economical to operate over their span of operation because they need to be changed so infrequently, and LEDs provide a more pleasant spectrum of light than sodium lamps do.
“The first phase of converting 226 of the HPSV lamps to LED began May 18, and was completed within three days,” according to project manager Scott Creer. “Updated energy cost savings numbers from PG&E indicate that the initial estimate of savings of $170,000 annually when all lights are converted will most likely be about 10 percent higher.” This first phase of LED conversions took place along East Dunne Avenue, Cochrane Road east of Butterfield, Condit (from Tennant to Diana avenues), and along Madrone Parkway. Phase 1 was totally funded by federal stimulus funds.
Phase 2 in 2010/11 will include converting 1,372 street lights within the city’s redevelopment area. The remaining conversions will be divided equally between phases Phase 3 and 4 in the next two subsequent years, contingent upon funding availability.
There you have it, good caller.
