Sam Gurwitt Photo
Streetlight acquisition advocates were preparing a forum to drum of support before a last pitch to get Hamden to buy its streetlights, and the town’s council was set to take up the issue for a third time. Then one key aspect of the plan fell through, sinking three years of work and advocacy among the other casualties of Hamden’s fiscal woes.
Since 2017, a group of Hamden residents has been pushing the town to buy its streetlights from United Illuminating (UI). Buying the lights would allow the town to control its own lighting system rather than leasing it form the utility, and if a few legal processes went Hamden’s way, might save the town millions of dollars.
But last week, General Electric, which had offered the town a loan that would allow it to buy the lights, got a whiff of Hamden’s new bond ratings and turned up its nose. The offer was withdrawn.
The loan was a key piece of the formula that would have allowed the town to buy its lights. Now that GE has rescinded its financing offer, Hamden would have to find another way to borrow money for the project.
Given its near junk bond status and town officials’ unwillingness to borrow any more money than is absolutely necessary, finding an alternative way of paying for the project and convincing politicians to pursue it in the first place would be nearly impossible.
Christina Crowder, who has been pushing for acquisition since 2017, wrote an email to other residents who had supported the effort.
“It’s all over folks,” she announced.
Last year, Mayor Curt Leng sent a letter to UI stating the town’s intention to buy its lights. UI replied, and has since maintained, that its streetlights are not for sale.
UI, one of Connecticut’s two electric utilities, serves only 17 towns. Eversource supplies power to the rest. While many towns in Eversource territory own their streetlights, New Haven is the only UI municipality that does because of a one-off deal in the 1980s when UI needed cash.
Over the last few years, UI has converted the lights in all of its towns except for Hamden from high-pressure sodium bulbs to LED lights. LEDs are more efficient and will save the town money, but Hamden told the utility to hold off on the conversion as it looked into buying its lights. If the numbers from streetlight experts were correct, it seemed that the town could save even more money by buying the lights. Buying the streetlights before they were converted to LEDs was the only way it would be possible, since the old high-pressure sodium lights are worth much less than new LED ones, so the acquisition would be less expensive.
Last year, the town’s energy efficiency contractor NORESCO presented a cost breakdown that showed that the town would actually save more money if it let UI go ahead with the conversion rather than buying its lights. Jason Tanko, the owner of Tanko Lighting, which had offered to guide the town through the acquisition process, said the numbers and assumptions NORESCO presented were not accurate.
The key difference came down to a $4‑per-pole “facility charge” that UI levies in New Haven for the city to attach its lights to UI poles. NORESCO assumed that Hamden would also have to pay that charge, which would make ownership more expensive.
The administration made up its mind to go ahead with the UI conversion and give up on acquisition. Streetlight advocates found that out until July, when the administration sent an agreement with UI for the conversion project to the council.
The group of citizens pushing for acquisition made a last stand, and the council tabled the item twice. Tanko presented to the council saying that the $4‑per-pole charge could be eliminated by opening a rate case with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), which sets utility rates.
Streetlight advocates had planned a forum to discuss the issue, and the council was set to take up the debate again at its Aug. 31 meeting.
In preparation, Tanko said he was trying to dot his I’s and cross his T’s, so he went to GE to make sure its financing offer still stood. GE had sent Hamden an offer to finance the project with a $4.7 million bond in May.
But in July, rating agencies handed the town an unpleasant reality check. S & P and Fitch Ratings both downgraded the town’s bond rating, following a Moody’s downgrade in December that put Hamden just one step above junk-bond status.
For GE, that was a game changer.
“They came back and said ‘you know what, their credit is catching up with them. Their rating is basically in the toilet,’” said Tanko. GE pulled its offer to finance the project, sending a dream some residents had harbored for three years down the toilet along with the town’s bond ratings.
But Tanko is not done with UI yet or its attempt to get PURA to remove the $4‑per-pole charge. Tanko is talking to Fairfield about the town possibly buying its lights, and it has offered to help New Haven eliminate that charge.
Tanko is set to meet with New Haven City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, Director of Transportation Traffic, and Parking Doug Hausladen, and representatives from Fairfield in the next few weeks to talk about opening a rate case with PURA.
As Tanko told the Hamden council, a 2001 case in Torrington ruled that Eversource, then Connecticut Light and Power, could not levy a similar charge. Eversource towns now do not have to pay that fee when they own their lights. Hamden Assistant Town Attorney Brendan Sharkey said he does not think PURA would remove that charge for UI towns because it takes into account the relative small size of UI when it sets its rates. He pointed out that it has continued to approve that charge in New Haven.
Zinn said he is open to discussing the possibility of a rate case, though he did not say he was hopeful that it would work. “We’re obviously interested in anything that would improve our rates,” he said.
In Hamden, the streetlight acquisition debate is over, and the UI conversion is all but assured. Sharkey said the utility will likely begin installing the new lights in the spring of 2021.
Though streetlight advocates did not get their way, they will still have a say in how the town is lit in the future. Sharkey said the town would set up a committee to help in an audit of Hamden’s streetlights so the town can ask UI to remove unnecessary lights before it does the installation.