(8/24) At its Aug. 21 meeting, the Town Council tabled a decision to award a bid for downtown street lighting.

The proposed project would replace 103 total outdated Old Boston style streetlights including poles fixtures and lenses. 97 lights are located on Main St. and six are located on South Seton Ave.

Along with the age of the streetlights, a driving force for the project was addressing concerns that not only were the lights not bright enough to light the streets, but also that light is escape upwards into the night sky, or into residents’ bedroom windows, according to Commissioner Frank Davis.

The total cost of the proposed project through various grant funding and town matching funds was estimated to be $257,876. The town approved $71,590 for its portion of the project in the FY 2024 budget already, she said.

Town staff recommended that Catoctin Lighting Services of Thurmont be awarded the contract even thought they where the highest of nine bidders at $266,140, due to similarities with the town’s current lighting, high recommendations and being local, she said. The Catoctin Lighting bid however did not include installation of the lights, which would be an additional cost, Willets said.

While the lights in the Catoctin Lighting bid will not address light escaping directly into the sky, they will be dimmable, allowing the town to reduce address on a case by case basis the amount of light going into windows, or where necessary, increase the amount light in darker portions of the street.

Commissioner Amy Pollitt pointed out that if the town did choose to go with Catoctin Lighting, the town would have to come up with an additional $38,000. Town Manager Cathy Willets said there is money available in other town accounts that could be moved to cover the shortfall.

Even though the costs of going with the Catoctin Lighting was higher than anyone else, the Town Council was deposed to approving the bid due to the fact that the new lights would be nearly identical to the existing lights. "I like the idea of staying local, I just wish there was a way to do that within our budget," Commissioner Frank Davis said.

The Council opted not to vote on the bid until the town staff could identify where the additional funds to cover the shortfall would be coming from.