The city began the yearlong conversion of all street lights to LED lighting this week, starting with some arterial streets in north Lincoln.
This will not be like Allo or Windstream digging in your yard. The inconvenience will be minimal. Crews will block portions of the street as they replace the lights, likely for 15 to 45 minutes, said Frank Uhlarik, sustainability manager for the city.
The city has reduced the brightness of the LEDs in neighborhoods, after a few residents warned of problems in other cities created by lights that were too bright. Lincoln will install 4,000 Kelvin LEDs on arterial streets and 3,000 Kelvin fixtures in neighborhoods. The LED lights on residential streets will appear to be less bright than those on arterials, according to a news release from the city.
The city plans to recoup the $12.2 million cost of converting about 27,000 street lights to LEDs over 12 years, perhaps a little longer, through savings on energy costs and maintenance.Ìý
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The LED lights will also have a positive environmental impact by reducing the city’s annual energy usage by 10.7 million kilowatt hours and keeping 3.9 million pounds of carbon from reaching the atmosphere each year.ÌýThat is the equivalent to planting 180,891 trees or removing 1,224 cars from the road, according to the news release.
Schneider Electric, an international company with a manufacturing facility in Lincoln, has the contract for the LED conversion and will be coordinating and overseeing subcontractors during the installation process.
The company has guaranteed the installation price and some energy and maintenance savings each year.Ìý
The installation schedule is available on the city website, .
Questions on new taxes
You likely won’t hear a peep from county officials about adding a county wheel tax or instituting a county sales tax until after the November election.
A county transportation task force has recommended the Lancaster County Board consider those options to raise money for replacing deteriorating county bridges.
The wheel tax would be added to vehicle registrations for residents of the county outside the city limits. (Lincoln has its own wheel tax.) The sales tax would only apply in those areas of the county without an added sales tax already in place.
The Nov. 6 election puts a damper on any new tax discussions by county commissioners. Three of the five County Board seats are on the ballot, though one is uncontested.
But commissioners have asked the county attorney’s office to research a number of questions, and getting answers will undoubtedly take more than four weeks.
In fact, commissioners probably won’t start any substantive discussion of the proposed taxes until after the first of the year, says Todd Wiltgen, board chair.
The commissioners want to know how a county wheel tax and sales tax would work. Could money collected from a wheel tax inside a city or village be spent outside that city or village? What would be required to implement a sales tax in communities that don’t have their own sales tax?
They also want to know if a portion of the county’s property tax can be earmarked for roads and bridge repair, similar to a levy in the 1920s for bridges.
The transportation task force said the county needs more money for its bridge program after a study indicated it will need $9 million a year to keep up with replacing the worst of its bridges over the next 20 years.
The commissioners last considered the idea of implementing a county wheel tax to help fund roads in 2010.
More on the parade
The theme for Lincoln’s new parade, on Nov. 3, is “100 Years.†The Lincoln Veterans Parade will celebrate the end of World War I in 1918, the 100th anniversary of women joining the Marine Corps, and the 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood in France, which earned the Marines the nickname “Devil Dogs.â€
Antonio Marino, chair of the Marine Corps League's 370 Cornhusker Detachment — the parade sponsor, is looking for groups who want to be involved.
Information and applications are available at .
County treasurer donations
In the race for Lancaster County treasurer, Republican Matt Schulte has raised more money than Democrat Rachel Garver, primarily because he raised about $6,000 last year.Ìý
Garver has raised about $31,200 this year and Schulte $32,300 in 2018. But Schulte carried over an additional $6,000 from last year, based on his campaign reports.Ìý
The treasurer and two county board seats are the only contested county races in the November election.
The other offices (one commissioner seat, sheriff, engineer, clerk, public defender and clerk of the district court) are incumbents with no opposition. Newly appointed County Attorney Pat Condon and Rob Ogden, chief field deputy in the assessor's office, are running for the first time with no opposition.