MY TAKE - Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea?

There was a story in the Wednesday October 24th edition of the Record Journal titled Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea? which I have cross posted to my Wallingford Politico blog.

I have followed up on this because I feel there may be some miscommunication or a misunderstanding regarding these fixtures; perhaps mine, perhaps others’ understanding, but some clarification is needed.

So to begin with let’s look at the fixtures. I do not disagree with Public Utilities Director George Adair’s assessment of the fixtures – they are very old, they are of non-standard design and as such (regarding both age and design), more difficult to continue to use and maintain. Replacing them is the right thing to do as a part of the natural progression and upkeep program.

What I would say however is they might be of use elsewhere in Wallingford. I understand Public Utilities Director George Adair’s position that “We (the Wallingford Electric Division) don’t consider them suitable. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) do not want to perpetuate the use of them. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) consider them truly to be scrap.”

These lights, I believe, belong to the Town of Wallingford, as they were purchased with funds we provided to the Wallingford Electric Division as part of their budget and in the end, the Town of Wallingford owns the Wallingford Electric Division.

If a light being taken down is truly broken and otherwise unusable I understand the desire to recycle / scrap it.

Having said that, if the fixture is working, the Town of Wallingford may wish to deploy it elsewhere and save $3,000.00 for brand new units in an area that could leverage them. As Town Councilor Fishbein keenly pointed out – we are presently creating a “temporary” parking area at the Wooding Caplan site; isn’t it logical to re-use some of those fixtures there even if just temporarily rather than spending for brand new lighting fixtures? If we need ten of them there that saves $30,000.00.

Also, I believe the purview of getting rid of WORKING fixtures falls to the Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo. One of that department’s responsibilities as outlined at http://www.town.wallingford.ct.us/Content/Purchasing.asp is to be responsible for “surplus property disposition”

I called Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo today to let him know that I spoke with Public Utilities Director George Adair and that Mr. Adair indicated to me that he is scrapping all the fixtures working or not. I believe that Mr. Adair is executing his responsibly the way he feels he should be (without malice) but I feel that these light fixtures have more than scrap metal value to the Town of Wallingford and as the owners of the fixtures I believe the Town of Wallingford should either re-use them suitably or try to sell them to another entity that might want them.

Ten cents on the dollar selling them to an entity that wants them is better than pennies on the dollar as scrap metal.

I’ll let you know what I find out regarding my calls into Town Hall in the AM. I have to follow up with new calls as I missed getting in touch with people at the end of the day while my cell service was down in the tunnels under New York City on the train ride home at 4:50PM.

As we all know, it’s not like I can follow up by email and get an answer early in the AM; that would be way too efficient.