Event center to get new LED lights

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NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck Event Center is getting new lights.

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses this month unanimously approved a plan to replace the light fixtures on the first floor, part of the second floor, and in the parking lot of the Naugatuck Event Center, the former General DataComm building at 6 Rubber Ave., with LED fixtures.

The lights will be replaced through the Energize Connecticut program, which allows the borough to pay off the lights by continuing to pay its regular price for electricity.

Purchasing and Financial Analyst Robert Butler said the LED lights are expected to cost $70,000 to install and will save the borough approximately $42,000 a year on electricity costs. He said the borough will pay off the lights and begin realizing savings in under two years.

The borough currently pays $80,000 a year for electricity at the center, Butler said.

Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said the borough has a contract in place to sell the event center, but the sale will not go through until a number of factors are met, including the state completing work on the Metro North Railroad line that runs through the borough.

Hess said the work is not likely to be finished within two years.

“There is a good chance that we will still own it in two years, although it is not absolutely certain. There is some level of a tactical gamble in doing this,” Hess said. “I think it is a gamble, but it is a good gamble. So I’m in favor of it.”