The Board of Selectmen during its most recent meeting approved an approximately $225,000 contract to purchase 40 lampposts for Waveny from a Norwalk-based company.
The lampposts in the park now are “smaller,” “not as well made” and are manufactured by a company that’s no longer in business, according to Department of Public Works Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann.
The purchase represents the first part of a two-phase project that will see a total of 70 new lampposts installed at the park that match those in downtown New Canaan, Oestmann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
“Phase two project is for next year to finish the rest of the lights,” he said. “We did this over two years because of the cost. And the amount of work to be honest with you. It’s a lot to do at once.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $226,170 contract with F&M Electric.
The selectmen asked whether there will be sufficient funds in the budget for the next phase in the current fiscal year (yes), whether the town is getting the lampposts from the very same manufacturer as the ones downtown (yes), how long they’ll last (they should last, as long as nobody crashes into them like they do downtown), whether all existing lampposts in Waveny will be replaced (yes), whether any additional lampposts locations will be added in the park as part of the project (no) and whether the new lampposts will be installed everywhere in Waveny, including at Lapham Community Center (yes, the whole park).
F&M Electric has supplied New Canaan with the lampposts for many years and “they actually came in with a really good price,” Oestmann said.
The per-unit cost is about $5,600 when buying 40 units at once, as opposed to $7,000 per unit when they’re purchased one at a time.