Princeton residents 
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To the Editor,

A recent Letter to the Editor asks the question “Replace 882 street lights! What are the city council and the mayor thinking about?”

The very simple answer to this question is that they were thinking about saving more than $100,000 per year. This project is just another example of Princeton taking the lead statewide and nationally in efficiency and innovation.

Street lights are very important to the safety of our residents, but they are also the largest uncollected expenses for our electric department. The new induction street lights are 55 percent more efficient than the high pressure sodium lights that are now being used, and they will last longer. The average life span of our current lights is 10,000 hours. The average life expectancy of our new induction street lights is 100,000 hours. For the 20-year life expectancy of the new lights, this will mean more than $2 million in energy and labor savings. The new street lights will pay for themselves in about one year.

Another reason for the new induction street lighting is the environment. By replacing 882 street lights with the new induction lighting, the city of Princeton will remove the equivalent of 696,000 pounds of C02 from the atmosphere — that’s the same as taking 96 cars off the road. In addition, the city received a small grant from the American Public Power Association for this project and is applying for funds through the energy efficiency programs in the American Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The writer also questioned why action was not being taken on Princeton streets and sewers. To this I can only respond that he must have missed the reports in this paper and other local media that the city council passed an $845,000 Motor Fuel Tax program at the last council meeting. This year, the city will be repaving and resurfacing most of the streets contained in our 10-year Motor Fuel Tax requests. We have spent the last two months working with our engineers and IDOT to get this project approved. Many of these streets are in bad shape and our mayor and city council felt it was important to try to get them fixed as soon as possible. Now they will be.

Finally, I want to assure all our residents that we are working diligently to address our sewer issues. The city has several large and small projects in the works that will help alleviate many of our problems. Unfortunately, there are many regulations that must be followed. The city can’t just fix our sewers or replace them. This year our residents will see many of these projects moving forward.

Anytime any citizen has any question about these or any other city projects or issues, please feel free to call me at City Hall.

Jeff Fiegenschuh, Princeton city manager

Princeton