LONGMEADOW – While there has been talk in Longmeadow of purchasing new streetlights with LED bulbs in an effort to improve efficiency, last week a Regional Select Board meeting was conducted, at which time it was decided that the town would not be buying the lights.

According to Town Manager Stephen Crane, either Eversource or Verizon own all telephone poles in Longmeadow.  As for streetlights, Eversource is the owner.  

Monthly, the town pays $7 per streetlight to Eversource and Longmeadow has 1,500 lights.

While the town wanted to purchase 1,500 newer, more efficient lights, when Eversource gave the cost estimate, the town decided this was not a realistic number.

“Eversource set the price for lights much too high.  It became clear Eversource wasn’t willing to budge on the price; it was going to be $700,000 for 1,500 streetlights,” he said.

Though the town was looking forward to a potential cost savings in the long run by switching to energy efficient lights, they’re going to keep their original streetlights instead.

 “We found there was no money to be saved by purchasing and converting because the price was just too high,” Crane said.