EAST PROVIDENCE — Administrators will move forward in their attempt to determine the viability of buying East Providence's streetlights from National Grid after the City Council backed their …
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EAST PROVIDENCE — Administrators will move forward in their attempt to determine the viability of buying East Providence's streetlights from National Grid after the City Council backed their proposal at its meeting Tuesday night, May 3.
City Manager Richard Kirby and Director of Public Works Steve Coutu submitted the request to the full Council last week, but the proposal has long been championed by Ward 2 Councilman Helder Cunha.
The plan calls for the city to purchase the streetlights from National Grid and replace the existing fixtures with more cost effective and energy efficient LED lighting.
"We've been working diligently on this," Mr. Kirby said. "We've had various vendors come to the city with proposals."
As part of the plan, the city issued a Request for Qualifications for management services. Three companies — Ameresco, PRISM and Siemens — satisfied the requirements. The Council approved negotiating with the vendors on the project.
However, a couple of significant hurdles in the process remain. National Grid, despite what Mr. Kirby deemed the best efforts of Mr. Coutu, has yet to produce the exact number of streetlights it will make available for purchase nor has the utility given the city the price of the transaction.
Still, Mr. Kirby said Council approval would allow the administration to "be proactive," "plan to go forward" and also allow it to "negotiate and get quotes" from the pre-qualified vendors.
After the meeting, Mr. Coutu said if the city goes through with the purchase, it will buy all of East Providence's streetlights from National Grid. He estimated the cost to be in the range of "$350,000," though that figure will not be determined until the city learns the exact number of lights involved in the purchase.
Mr. Coutu continued, the "bigger cost" is replacing the existing fixtures with the LED lighting. He said he expects a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued once all of the details of the transaction are finalized.
"Any deal is better than the deal we have right now with National Grid. It's costs a lot and we're getting nothing in return in terms of service," Mr. Coutu added. "So we're going to save money. It's just a matter of how much the cost savings will be."