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Moline looking at LED street lights
Posted Online: Nov. 02, 2009, 6:17 pm
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By Dawn Neuses, dneuses@qconline.com
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MOLINE-- The Moline City Council is expected to vote Tuesday night on declaring old street lights and poles as surplus property, which will allow the city to sell them and use the money to buy and test a few LED street lights. City engineer Scott Hinton said advances in LED techology mean "is to the point we can try some of this and see if we are able to light up the streets. "The demonstrations we've seen and the product information looks very promising. Rather than jumping in and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, we want to try it out first and make sure the technology is there," Mr. Hinton said. Mr. Hinton said the city's first venture into LED lighting came in 2001, when the city spent approximately $300,000 to purchase traffic signal lights. The payback in energy savings came within seven years, said. He said LED street lights could offer huge power savings in the long term. The city expects to make no more than $1,000 on the old lights and poles it will be selling. They were kept for replacement parts, but are no longer needed, he said. "If we scrap them out we will can use the proceeds to purchase a few LEDstreet lights and give it a shot without spending money out of pocket,"Mr. Hinton said. The city will likely install the LED street lights at one intersection. The city council meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor of city hall, 619 16thSt., Moline. The city council meeting immediately follows committee of the whole. Agendas are available at www.moline.il.us. 
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