Shall the Town of Hampton vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $245,241 for the purpose of replacing approximately 872 existing street lights with more energy efficient LED lighting. Further to authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into an agreement with Affinity Led Lighting and accept an expected rebate from Unitil Electric in the approximate amount of $122,120? (Majority vote required)
What it means: Unitil Electric has a program whereby they will provide 50% rebate to support the replacement of existing light fixtures with energy-saving LED fixtures. The Town still owes payments on the existing light fixtures. This rebate program absorbs the owed amount by reducing savings in the first five years, referred to as the Buyout Period. Even during this initial period, the Town will experience lower costs for electric use for the LED lights versus the current fixtures. After the Buyout Period, the savings go up significantly, and the program pays back completely in the seventh year. Subsequently, the Town saves about $65,000 per year. The LED lights are rated for 120,000 hours or roughly 25+ years of use.
Those in favor say: The new fixtures have an integrated backlight shield, to be more “night sky friendly”, with a built-in bird guard. They are easier to maintain versus the current fixtures.
Those against say: No one spoke against this Article at Deliberative Session.
Fiscal impact: The $122,120 cost (after Unitil offsets) in 2019 will create an additional tax cost for the average Hampton home valued at $405,000 of $14.83. (Take your property value divided by 1000 and multiply by .036 to get your specific tax impact.) This decision affects the current year only.