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TO:

Honorable Mayor and Members of the Common Council

FROM:

Jim Collins, Director of Transportation

DATE:

August 14, 2024

SUBJECT:

Discussion of Street Lighting Policy (Larson)

BACKGROUND

Recently, Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) began the replacement of old concrete streetlight poles in a neighborhood on the northeast side of the city. This project and the WPS policy change was explained to Council at the January 10, 2023, Council meeting. The implementation of that policy change and this project was initially supposed to begin in 2023, but has only recently begun. The old concrete poles have been deemed structurally deficient and in need of replacement by WPS. In recent years, WPS was purchased by WE Energies. WE Energies’ (and consequently WPS's) new standard is to use wood poles. Any pole other than wood is now considered an upgrade and subject to an additional charge to the City, which is unbudgeted and could have significant financial implications for the City. Prior to WE Energies’ acquisition, WPS would occasionally replace older concrete poles with fiberglass at no additional cost. Since the WPS standard has been changed, this is no longer the case. Following the presentation to Council, no change in City policy was made, so no further action was taken by Council. Staff did, however, agree to upgrade wooden poles to fiberglass along city gateway corridors administratively, and that cost was budgeted.

WPS owns 74% of the streetlights in the city. The remainder are owned by the City, and the City standard remains aluminum or steel poles, as that is what we believe is the most cost-effective option for us. We have been replacing WPS poles with City poles during street reconstruction projects, but those represent a limited number of poles given the number of poles owned by WPS city-wide.

Now that WPS is beginning to implement its new replacement policy, people are now noticing the new wooden poles. Please note, however, that there are also quite a few wooden poles in the surrounding area and neighborhoods as well. A presentation on this topic was made to the Common Council in January of 2023 (attached). The direction given at that time was fiberglass poles on Jackson Street and gateways and make no change to the WPS standard (now changed to wooden poles) on residential streets. The exception would be if a street was being reconstructed and the City could install our own City-owned street lighting. In those cases, the cost is budgeted for in the capital project. The City’s streetlight policy has not changed. Please note that the costs in the presentation are from January 2023 and have increased since then.

Attachments

Streetlight Presentation to Council, January 10, 2023