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Brighter future on Ripons streets?
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The City of Ripon is hoping to someday convert all of its street lights from inductive to LED.
The cost of that might be steep but, according to Director of Public Works Ted Johnston, it would be part of a trade-off.
At the recent Ripon City Council meeting, he indicated that getting replacement parts for the current inductive street lights have been tough to find.
The reason for that involves the energy-efficient LED and its growing use. “The (inductive light) technology is going by the wayside,” Johnston said in his Street Light Maintenance report.
Ripon has a total of 1,311 street lights, he noted. Of that, 748 are owned and maintained by the City while the remaining 563 are owned by PG&E.
“When a street light is out, an individual can make a phone call or e-mail (www.streetlights@cityofripon.org) and report the outage,” said Johnston, who added that staff makes routine checks on a weekly basis.
At the time of the report, 27 street lights were out due to staff having a difficult time finding vendors with inductive lights parts to make the necessary repairs.
“Many (cities) have gone to LED,” Johnston said. “This might be something (for Ripon) to consider for the future.”
Councilman Leo Zuber, who requested the report at the January meeting, inquired about the cost to convert the current street lights to LED.
“LED is more expensive,” said Johnston, who didn’t have the estimated dollar amount available at the time.
He’s working on gathering the cost.
Johnston indicated that the City did find a vendor with inductive replacement parts.
“It’s a quick fix – eventually, we would like to go LED,” he said.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com.