Crossville Considering Installation of LED Street Lights

Crossville city officials are considering the installation of new LED street lights.

City Manager Greg Wood said Volunteer Electric (VEC) has proposed an estimate to the city on how much the project could cost.

“We had a discussion with VEC about converting to LEDs and it was a pretty good sized price tag,” Wood said. “They told us to go back and see if we could do $100,000 a year through a capital improvement program. They said it would take 6.5 years to do that at $100,000 and it would be approximately 1,500 lights.”

Crossville City Council members originally considered a proposal from NORESCO officials last summer during a work session, which would have also included water conservation and new HVAC units for a total cost of $2 million.

Wood said the city previously considered bidding out the project due to its size but the idea was later struck down.

“We had already looked at that as far as going with NORESCO. Council had directed us to go to VEC, and VEC is actually giving us a pretty good deal on it,” Wood said. “The difference between it was with NORESCO, the way they did it was they paid for the project with energy savings, kind of financing through the savings. But the Council opted not to go that direction so that’s why we are where we are at here.”

Wood said any plan approved by the city may not be implemented right away but could later this year.

“Once the Council authorizes us to go talk to VEC, we’ll bring you back more specificity because I don’t see us implementing this until after the budget,” Wood said. “This is to kind of lay the groundwork and get the information to go get it. Because I don’t want to go and say ‘listen, we want to spend $100,000 but the Council hasn’t given me permission.'”

Crossville City Council will consider acting on the topic during their next meeting Feb. 12th beginning at 6 p.m.