Agenda Packets - 2004/12/13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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10 Staff participating in this program took on additional duties and time commitments, without which, this inspection program would not have been so successful. Great Job! STREET LIGHT REPLACEMENT PROGRAM Currently there are about 260 public streetlights throughout the City. Of these, the City owns only 54 of them, of which nine (9) are scattered throughout the City and the remainder are grouped in the Park View Neighborhood, around Mounds View Drive, and the majority are in the City’s Industrial Park, along Program Avenue, Woodale Drive, and Quincy Street. The City does not have the equipment or the manpower to maintain the streetlights. In most cases, the City has been contracting this work out at a large expense to the City. The bottom line is that it is not cost effective to maintain these streetlights. When Staff developed the City’s Capital Improvement Program in 2002, Staff proposed eliminating the City-owned streetlights by converting them to Xcel Energy Lights and having Xcel maintain them. It was proposed that the lights be slowly converted to Xcel Energy over a period of ten (10) years. The plan was five (5) lights per year at $3,500 per light for a total annual program of $17,500. Recently however, within the City’s Industrial Park there were several posts that have corroded to the point where wooden posts have been added by Staff to help keep the streetlights from toppling over. Given the condition of these poles and the liability taken on by the City, in the event that one of these poles damages property or endangers life and safety, it was imperative that the City address this situation immediately. On August 9, 2004, the City Council approved Resolution 6327 approving a contract award with Xcel Energy for the Street Light Replacement Program. Staff has consulted with Xcel Energy and developed the following proposal: Industrial Park Area – 40 Lights $191,000 Parkview Area – 5 Lights $ 24,000 Various Locations - 3 lights $ 18,000 TOTAL $233,000 The cost to add the Silver Lake Woods Condominium Area is $36,000 for the six (6) additional lights. Silver Lake Woods has contracted with Xcel Energy to replace their lights. It should be noted that at the March 8, 2004 City Council meeting, the issue of dedicating the streets in the Silver Lake Woods Condominium association was discussed. The Private Street Maintenance Policy requires that the private streetlights within this development be upgraded before the City will accept them. However, at that meeting, the City Council made a verbal commitment to the association that the City would pay 50% of the cost to convert the private streetlights to Xcel energy lights, should the streets be dedicated to the City. Xcel Energy currently has the poles on backorder. It is anticipated that they will resume with this project in late December when the pole are available. Xcel Energy estimates that they will be completed with this project by mid-January of 2005.