WHEELING — Neighborhoods in the city of Wheeling will be in store for a brighter future after streetlights that have burnt-out lamps are replaced.

While city leaders have been urging AEP to fix these outages that are much more prevalent in some Wheeling neighborhoods than others, the costs associated with replacing each light may come at a significant cumulative cost — as old-school high-pressure sodium lights are being replaced with brighter and more expensive LED lights.

During Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council, City Manager Robert Herron provided an update on the issue after the topic was raised by Councilman Ben Seidler, who resides in and represents the Ward 2 neighborhood of Wheeling Island.

“I have had conversations with AEP last week — several,” Herron said. “They have completed the overall audit of the Island. It was done last Monday.”

While the city manager said he did not know the results of the recent audit, he said he was aware of numbers related to certain sections of Wheeling Island regarding streetlights that are out.

Earlier this year, council members urged city staff to work with AEP to get an inventory on streetlights that needed to be replaced.

Typically, the public can report outages for individual streetlights by submitting pole numbers associated with the lights.

However, city council members have noted that some poles are difficult to access to obtain the numbers, and some neighborhoods are riddled with streetlights that are out.

City officials argued that AEP crews should help keep tabs on their equipment, particularly when it is not operating properly.

“They do want to start changing out every light on the Island from high pressure sodium to LED,” Herron said. “The immediate repair that they’re going to be doing — which they started last week — is, there are 44 lights that are out on Zane and Virginia streets, and the blocks in between. Just in that area alone there are 44 lights that are out.”

Herron said AEP crews were scheduled to be out repairing these lights now.

“Fulton is having some of the same issues there, so this has to happen in Fulton, as well,” Seidler said. “In North Wheeling, there’s a handful of them, but North Wheeling isn’t in as bad shape.

“I think that we should push them for some kind of credit for the fact that we have 44 lights that are out in just a couple-block radius. And I know that moving to these new lights are expensive in terms of tariffs. I think we’ve been complaining about this for years now, and AEP is coming at us with a rate increase across the board while their profit margins skyrocket. I think it’s time for them to feel a little bit of pain as well and offer the city a credit back on this.”

Herron said the city would explore all options in that regard.

“Is that going to raise our cost? What’s the budgetary impact?” Councilman Dave Palmer asked.

“It is,” Herron said of the increase in cost. “We are in discussions with AEP right now. They’re outlining an approximate number of lights they anticipate replacing each year. They’re struggling to find parts for the high-pressure sodium lights. So any lights that are out are going to be converted to LED. We don’t have a number yet on that. Periodically, as lights go out, the high-pressure sodiums are going to be converted, as well. There is going to be a budget impact.”

The city manager noted that because parts for high-pressure sodium lamps are reportedly unavailable, AEP wants to convert all streetlights to LED after the old ones burn out.

“We’re going to be meeting with them within the next two weeks to get a budgetary impact,” Heron said. “The tariff on the LED lights is not quite double what the high-pressure sodium is. The tariff has been approved by the Public Service Commission, and it’s statewide for AEP. It’s not unique to Wheeling. Moundsville is wrestling with the same problem. We’ve had conversations with Moundsville about this very topic.”

The LED streetlights are more efficient in terms of electric usage, and they have other benefits, Herron noted.

“I will say that, in my opinion, the light that is emulated from these LED lights is cleaner, it’s brighter and provides better spacing than the high-pressure sodium lights,” he said.

While officials did not have the specific figures on hand during this week’s council meeting, Herron estimated the ballpark cost to the city for each high-pressure sodium streetlight was around $6.50 per month, while the cost for the LED streetlights was much more expensive – around $15 to $17 per month.

Palmer suggested that since the LED lights are brighter and more efficient, the city may want to explore the possibility of getting the same coverage with a reduced number of lights in order to help balance out the potential impact of the increase in costs.

“Can we appeal to the Public Service Commission since we’re being forced into this changeover?” asked Councilman Tony Assaro, whose Ward 1 neighborhood of Warwood has been peppered with streetlights that are not working – including the the stretch of W.Va. 2 between North Wheeling and Warwood.

Herron said the city is only being “forced” into the more expensive upgrade because of AEP’s inability to find parts needed to replace the old-style lamps.

In related news, Herron reported that additional decorative lights are expected to be installed at Market Plaza to illuminate the area for pedestrians between Market Street and Main Street near the Capitol Theatre. The city is currently working with RED (Regional Economic Development Partnership) on this project.