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Item No. 2A Meeting Date: March 1, 2005 Type of Business: WK WK: Work Session; PH: Public Hearing; CA: Consent Agenda; CB: Council Business City Administrator Review _______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Tracy Juell, Administrative Assistant Item Title/Subject: Electronic Message Board Retrofit with a LED Lighting System Background: On December 13, 1999, City Council authorized the purchase of the Daktronics electronic message board in the amount of $40,741.00 from AIM Electronics. At the time of the purchase of the electronic message board, incandescent, white lighting, was the industry standard and LED, red lighting, was a new lighting technology just being introduced. Discussion: As with any piece of equipment, this sign requires continuous replacement parts, such as bulbs, sockets and filters as part of its maintenance schedule. Daktronics, the parts supplier, has increased the prices for the bulbs from .75 each to $1.25 each (there are a total of 2,156 bulbs in the sign). The reason for the increase on parts is due to the fact that Daktronics along with the rest of the lighting industry are concentrating their efforts on LED signs instead of incandescent. With more organizations ordering LED lighting systems due to their increased efficiency and lower maintenance and labor costs, more units are produced and the unit cost is lowered. Conversely, with many companies reducing and or eliminating their production of incandescent signs, prices increase due to lack of supply. Through the past 5 years the City’s electronic message board has required moderate repairs; $5,446.07 for parts and service calls. At this time however, numerous parts are in need of replacement in order to restore the message board to its original functionality.