The Merriam city council on Monday discussed purchasing LED bulbs for streetlights in need of replacement, and eventually transitioning entirely to LED bulbs.
A move to LED bulbs is trending among Shawnee Mission cities: Prairie Village its streetlights from Kansas City Power & Light in 2016 and set about installing LED heads. And in November 2019, Overland Park and Lenexa entered a partnership to switch to LED bulbs on some shared streetlights. Recently, Shawnee approved the acquisition of streetlights from Evergy (formerly KCP&L) and a conversion to LED bulbs.
Merriam purchased streetlights from KCP&L in 1996, and all light fixtures installed to date have been high-pressure sodium streetlights, according to city documents. There are 228 lights left to install to complete the Merriam Streetlight Program, and 78 of those are set for installation in 2020. The program could be completed with high-pressure sodium bulbs for $950,000, or with LED bulbs for closer to $1 million, Public Works Director Jim MacDonald said.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)
