Cookeville About 60 Percent Toward All LED Street Lights

The Cookeville Energy Department stands almost 60 percent to its goal of replacing all of Cookeville’s existing street lights with improved LED lights.

Department of Energy Director Carl Haney said the replacement project began some three years ago when manufacturers started to move away from the lights the city previously used.

“They were coming out with a more energy-efficient LED light,” Haney said. “LED light, you know, from a human eye standpoint, they see it better so it doesn’t take as high a voltage of a light to light up an area, and like I said, it makes it more efficient.”

Haney said the project is intended to save taxpayers money with a light that operates at a lower cost. He said replacements began at South Jefferson and Neal Street, and they have expanded from there. He said the project is still a couple of years from completion.

“It’s just an annual budget thing that we say okay, this is how many we feel like we can get changed out,” Haney said. “We started with all of the main thoroughfares.”

Haney said the department is mindful of lights in residential areas and wants to be sure that extra bright lights are not shining through people’s windows.

“Most of your secondary two-lane roads, we use just a small residential light in those areas,” Haney said. “If you went to something like a South Jefferson or Jackson, obviously you’ve got either four or five lanes there. We go to a larger light, but typically, that’s in the business areas, so there’s not that much effect of it.”

Haney said the end goal is to have a landscape of city streets that are safer and operate as efficiently as possible.