Mineola Still Working on Street Lighting Repairs

Mineola residents who feel that their streets are still being left in the dark long after the effects of Hurricane Sandy will hopefully be getting some relief soon.

After the storm, numerous street lamps in the village were damaged, destroyed or missing, yielding numerous residential complaints. Unfortunately, Mineola employs an older traditional “carriage lamp” style light fixture that is no longer manufactured.

“It’s been very difficult to try to get some of those replaced,” superintendent of public works Tom Rini said during the regular meeting of the village board on March 6 at the village hall. “Given the age of these fixtures it’s very difficult to find and some of them actually had to be made.”

Mayor Scott Strauss said that the village was aware of the locations where street lights were still out. The village had issues at 25 locations where lights were either completely destroyed, missing or no fixtures as well as situations where connections to power source and secondary LIPA lines were missing or damaged.

It was also noted that the auxiliary police send a weekly list of lights they observe being out while on patrol. Residents are also encouraged to call to report a street light that is out.

Rini reported that most of the new fixtures have been received from the street lighting contractor and start being put back up. The contract with the vendor is due to expire this summer and the village is researching replacement lights.

“There are different styles, we may move to a more efficient lighting system,” Rini said, noting induction and LED, the latter of which does not come in the carriage-style lighting. “It may represent a full changeover but it also may represent a significant cost savings; obviously there’ll be a significant outlay, LED is arguably the most expensive but you can also control them if you want to, so you can, actually if it’s summer and you’re looking at a heat wave you can actually reduce your LED street lighting by turning them down.”

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