(December 28)   The city of Redlands public works division has met a city council- imposed goal of having a significant number of downtown street lights transition from the high pressure sodium light bulbs the city has traditionally used to the brighter, more energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) bulbs.
According to Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar the lights shone brightly during the Redlands Christmas parade.
Instead of making a complete change of the light fixtures on Orange Street from Pearl to Citrus avenues as originally intended, city workers found a vendor, Flatiron Electric Group, capable of adapting the lights to LED bulbs. In this way the scale of phase one of the light improvement project was increased to include a portion of Redlands Boulevard and parts of Sixth and Eureka streets. Phase one of the project, which began in March, has yet to be entirely completed.
Phase two of the conversions are currently intended to extend to portions of Colton Avenue, further westward on Redlands Boulevard, Brookside Avenue, Cajon and Orange streets.
LED lighting uses roughly 50 percent less energy than conventional illumination. LED bulbs should last 50,000 illuminated hours or longer, which is 30,000 hours longer than the effective life of high pressure sodium bulbs.
The first  phase of the project will cost $210,000 and will be paid for with $100,000 from the city’s public works budget, a $50,000 credit from Southern California Edison for  photovoltaic cells installed at the wastewater treatment plant, $35,000 in savings to the city represented by diminishing its manpower need directly related to lower lighting system maintenance, current and anticipated electricity usage reductions in the amount of $19,000 for the fiscal year ending next June 30 and $6,000 in rebates for using LED lights. Within six to seven years the city will see energy savings that will defray in its entirety the outlays for the LED purchases, according to city engineer Fred Mousavipour.