City tackles streetlights

For Petaluma residents whose streetlights are perpetually dark, and for the lone technician whose job it is to fix them all, relief is on the way.

The city council's 2012-2013 budget includes a second streetlight technician position, essentially doubling the streetlight repair workforce in Petaluma. Petaluma currently employs a single technician to maintain and repair 5,000 streetlights, 50 traffic-lighted intersections and 22 in-ground lighted crosswalks.

The man is so busy working on traffic signals, crosswalks and other maintenance projects that he hasn't had the time to work on streetlights in three years. Instead, the city has been using one of its building maintenance workers to fix streetlights on overtime. For both city employees, a second position is a welcome addition.

"It's been a challenge for everyone to try to stay on top of the streetlight issue," said Michael Seslar, whose career with the city's building maintenance department has morphed into a "jack-of-all-trades" position since he began fixing streetlights for the city three years ago.

The streetlight technician must also mark underground wiring any time there is an underground road project, like the one currently taking place on East Washington Street. Seslar described the work as "time-consuming but necessary."

For the new hire, challenges will include the "birds and the bees," said Seslar. "I opened a light fixture last week with a bird's nest in it," he said. "Other times, I've opened a fixture with a wasp's nest in it. I've been stung and when you're stuck in the lift, there's nowhere to go."

Seslar said this as he harnessed up under a streetlight on Fair Street that was missing its plastic lighting cover, leaving the bulb and guts of the fixture exposed. With his truck parked underneath the lamp, he climbed aboard and stepped into the small square lift.

As the sun beat down and Seslar perspired under the weight of his regulation clothing, hardhat and harness, he carefully maneuvered the box high into the air and began removing the damaged light fixture. After several minutes of cranking screws and jiggling the clunky light head, he freed the piece and slowly maneuvered the lift back to ground level.

He flipped the fixture over and sure enough, there inside the bulb encasement was the start of a wasp's nest measuring about 2 inches in width.

"At least this one is small," he said, grinning with relief.

It took Seslar several minutes to locate the right parts needed to place a new casing on the fixture. But upon placing the fixture back onto the headless lamppost, the light did not spark to life. He then took another trip back to the ground, replaced a second piece, and headed back up to the top of the lamp. After approximately 20 minutes, Seslar returned to the ground with the streetlight working.

"Sometimes it takes five minutes, sometimes an hour," he said.

Curt Bates, director of the city's engineering division, said that there has never been a time in the city's history where every single streetlight has worked. "265 lights are currently reported as broken," he said.

Adding to the city's streetlight workload are cars and large trucks constantly running into lighted signs and traffic signals.

"In the last three years, the lighted crosswalk sign at the corner of Western Avenue and Petaluma Boulevard North has been hit eight times," said Seslar.

"The new technician's first task will be to tackle as many streetlights as possible," Bates said. "We're hoping to get that position filled within the next six weeks and get as many lights fixed as possible before daylight savings time expires."

The new, fulltime position will pay $80,000 to $100,000 a year, Bates said. He added that the council approved the new hire in a very tight budget year, showing they recognize the importance of the position.

Another method of relief for citizens stuck in the dark comes in the form of a pilot program to convert about 140 regular, high-pressure sodium street light bulbs with Light Emitting Dials - LEDs. Through a PG&E grant, LEDs were installed on Washington Street, Lakeville Street and North McDowell Boulevard in late July.

LEDs create a "whiter light" that provides the same amount of light with half the energy costs, according to Mike Farrell, the PG&E contractor who installed them. They're also much longer lived, which will save the city on installation costs over time.

Bates said that the city will monitor the new LEDs for at least six months before making a recommendation to the city council on whether to retrofit the rest of the city. He said that if they prove to be safe, attractive and functional, the city has an option to do a no-interest, $250,000 financing program with PG&E to change out all the city's current streetlights with LEDs and use the energy savings from the LEDs to pay off the installation costs over time.

LED streetlights could dramatically reduce the number of hours technicians would have to spend replacing streetlights over time. But Seslar says that streetlight technicians have a long future of job security. "The pilot program is in its initial stages and has a long way to go," he said. "And even if it's implemented, the city will still need someone to service all of them."

(Contact Janelle Wetzstein at janelle.wetzstein@arguscourier.com)