Letters

I found your article about East Hampton’s streetlight program from a few weeks ago to be very timely [“East Hampton Town Asks For Residents’ Input On New LED Lights At Atlantic Avenue Beach,” 27east.com, June 15]. I’d just gone to a Town Board meeting only a week earlier to make a few suggestions, and the potential for financial and emissions savings from finally upgrading streetlights was one of them.

I’ve been going to the town about this issue for over five years now, since it is one of the simplest sustainability upgrades a town can make. The Town of Southampton took this step about four years ago, I believe.

Unfortunately, after going to see the test lights that were just recently set up near Atlantic Beach, there still seemed to be some problems with glare. The town had been advised last year by local lighting expert Susan Harding that they should try to find the lowest kelvin lights possible for a variety of reasons. This advice was ignored by the town’s Energy & Sustainability Committee, the Natural Resources Department, and its consultants from the New York Power Authority.

In my own effort to see if there were better alternatives out there, I came across an article about a town in Massachusetts that had just completed its own LED streetlight program. Their project seemed far superior.

One, they used lower kelvin lights that 70 percent of their residents preferred in a survey to the two choices we are being offered. Second, their project was able to cut their electric usage by 75 percent, versus the 50 percent our proposal projects. Third, the cost of installation was 40 percent lower.

When I sent my concerns to the town, I was told that a decision needed to be made in the next few days — even though the test lights had only been put up less than a week and half earlier.

Hopefully, the town will consider using the lower-kelvin lights now that this issue has been brought up. But I’ve heard nothing from them about why we may end up paying more than $300,000 more than we probably should. I hope your paper continues to follow this story and that the town doesn’t needlessly waste that type of money.

Today, despite the many pledges to reduce emissions by 100 percent by 2030, the town most likely produces more. More aggravating, the town has no plan how it will reach these unrealistic goals. It has just hired another consultant from Georgia to try to put together a plan after the one they paid for seven years ago proved to be worthless.

I hope this time around they get more bang for their buck. Time is not on anybody’s side when it comes to climate change.

Brad Brooks

Springs