Streetlight decision comes to Shelburne Town Meeting

Shelburne Annual Town Meeting voters will decide on Tuesday whether the town will buy its 101 streetlights from Eversource, replacing the sodium-vapor lights with low-wattage LEDs.

Shelburne Annual Town Meeting voters will decide on Tuesday whether the town will buy its 101 streetlights from Eversource, replacing the sodium-vapor lights with low-wattage LEDs. STAFF FILE PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

By DIANE BRONCACCIO

For the Recorder

Published: 05-04-2024 2:01 PM

SHELBURNE — Will Shelburne buy its 101 streetlights from Eversource, replacing the sodium-vapor lights with low-wattage LEDs that would cut the town’s utility bills and energy use?

Annual Town Meeting voters will decide on Tuesday, May 7. They will also consider the town’s $5.7 million budget for fiscal year 2025. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School.

Nearby Greenfield already owns and maintains its streetlights, and nearly half the towns in Massachusetts already own or are pursuing the same goal, according to Jeff Boettner, chair of Shelburne’s Streetlight Committee.

Appointed by the Selectboard and using $9,100 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, the Streetlight Committee hired RealTerm Energy Solutions to conduct streetlight-by-streetlight measurements of the lights now owned by Eversource. The committee estimates the LED lights it wants to buy would save the town at least 27,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year in electricity, and about $7,000 per year in maintenance fees now paid to Eversource. It would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 19 tons per year.

According to Boettner, Eversource charges the town about $9,000 per year for streetlight maintenance, “but the rates could continue going up every year. If we did it ourselves, we could probably do it for $2,500 per year, because there’s very little maintenance needed for LEDs.” The LED (low-energy diode) lights under consideration are guaranteed for 10 years, he said.

Boettner said the committee wants to buy Cooper Lighting — the type of LED lights owned and operated in the town of Pepperell, which has an observatory in town and wanted “dark skies.” These lower-temperature lights produce an orange-yellow light, Boettner explained. The higher-temperature lights used by Eversource produce a brighter blue-white hue.

Besides buying new lights, the committee is considering a “dimulator” that could be programmed to further reduce lumination on lightly traveled residential streets by 35%, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. However, the lights on Route 2 would stay on full-power overnight.

Article 20 on the Town Meeting warrant seeks a $75,000 transfer from the town’s Stabilization Fund to acquire, install and perform maintenance on the streetlights, but Boettner believes potential energy grants could reduce the town’s cost. He said the town is applying for a Green Communities grant that might cover up to $30,000 of the cost, but Town Meeting support for the project is required before the grant could be awarded.

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About $14,500 of the $75,000 request would be used to purchase the streetlight rights from Eversource, he said. The lights would remain on the existing Eversource poles, which are maintained by the company and house other utilities as well. The article requires a two-thirds majority vote.

Budget

The overall budget request breaks down as follows:

■General government — $1.05 million, an increase of about $100,000, or 10.8%, over the current year’s figures.

■Education — Nearly $3.04 million, an increase of about $150,811, or 5.2%.

■Public safety — $631,715, an increase of 0.8%.

■Highways — $590,606, an increase of 11.8%.

■Health and sanitation — the $127,373 request represents a 1.3% decrease from the current year’s budget.

■Recreation — $39,499, a 14.3% increase.

■Human services — $221,845, a 2.8% increase.

In Article 8, the town will be asked to support allocating $56,284 to pay for its share of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District capital budget. Another $500 will be transferred from the Quintus Allen Trust Fund for this purpose.

Other articles

Other purchases are requested using Stabilization Account money. These include $27,000 to buy and install a new internet server for Town Hall, and $5,000 for a new photocopier in Town Hall, to replace one that is 10 years old. A separate article asks voters to transfer $428,114 in free cash surplus revenues into the Stabilization Account.

The town is also asking to spend $55,000 from the Housing Trust Fund to pay for half of an elevator lift at the Arms Library, and another $55,000 to be used for deferred maintenance and improvements at the Cowell Gymnasium.

A revision to the Mohawk Trail Regional School District Agreement will be on the warrant for a second year, because the measure did not pass in all Mohawk Trail member towns last year. It spells out in detail a proposed change to the formula that determines town assessments.

To view the full 32-article warrant and related budget information, visit townofshelburne.com/files/2025_Annual_Town_Meeting_Warrant_-_May_7_2024.pdf.