James Leonard, Patterson Irrigator

Patterson hopes to go green in the New Year, thanks to a $111,000 federal stimulus grant that's expected to pay for new bulbs in street lights and traffic lights and make pumps more energy-efficient at two of its wells.

The city was notified earlier this year that it would be eligible for the money - which comes from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants - if it could present a plan that followed the grant's guidelines.

The city's staff thinks it has done just that, but it won't find out for sure until the spring, Assistant City Manager Bryan Whitemyer told the City Council at its Dec. 15 meeting. The council voted unanimously to move forward with the grant application.

Should the city be awarded the money, staff would begin to retrofit street lights throughout downtown and old-town Patterson. The 130 high-pressure sodium lights in that area would be replaced with induction lamps at a total cost of $79,000.

Induction lamps are more efficient than sodium lights and should save the city more than $14,000 per year in energy costs. The new lights also have a much longer lifespan - 10 years, versus just two years for sodium lights - and Whitemyer said studies have shown they increase visibility and reveal colors better, despite using less energy.

"Essentially, the induction lamps are able to improve lighting with less lumens and wattage by tuning the light in such a way that it reacts better to the human eye," Whitemyer wrote in an e-mail to the Irrigator.

According to a staff report, many residents have expressed worry in recent years about insufficient street lighting in the older parts of town. The city looked into installing 42 new street lights, but the estimated cost of $630,000 has prevented that getting under way. Whitemyer said the city hopes the new bulbs will improve lighting enough that adding street lights won't be necessary.

"The city does not have funds available for the new street lights," Whitemyer said. "But this grant will enable us to hopefully improve the lighting in the downtown and old-town area, while saving utility costs at the same time."

Another $12,000 of the grant would be used for 200 LED bulbs for traffic signal lights, which Whitemyer said should be enough to replace all of the less energy-efficient incandescent halogen bulbs at traffic lights throughout town. He estimates the LEDs would save the city about $3,000 in annual energy costs.

Another $20,000 would pay to upgrade city wells No. 5 and 7. The single-speed drives used at those wells start and stop motors abruptly, which requires a surge of current. New variable-frequency drives would allow slower starts, which would save energy while also allowing more precise control of the pumps. Whitemyer said he didn't have an estimate on the annual savings expected from the new drives.