LED conversion continues, county already seeing savings

Published 6:49 pm Wednesday, March 8, 2023

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On Tuesday evening, the Troup County Board of Commissioners approved a third phase of LED light fixture conversions for additional county-owned facilities.

Phase III of the project will replace fluorescent light fixtures with new LED equivalents in the juvenile courtroom, the older section of the Griggs Recreation Center, the Gray Hill Community Center, the Mike Daniel Recreation Center and the LaGrange Active Life Center.

Phase I of the project provided LED conversions for the Government Center and in Phase II the Juvenile Courthouse was added.

Special Projects Manager Jay Anderson said the county is already saving money due to the earlier phases of the project.

Anderson said the Government Center conversions were completed in October, so they compared electrical use at the courthouse from November, December, January and February.

“We compared those to the four months of last year, and there was a 7 percent decrease,” Anderson said.

“That 7 percent might not sound like much, but it’s a big amount of savings,” Commissioner Lewis Davis said.

Anderson added that the biggest saving from the conversions comes from labor costs. He said that the county’s maintenance staff was constantly having to swap out ballasts and bulbs for the previous lights.

The new LED lights are expected to be even more efficient over the warmer months of the year because they don’t produce as much heat as other lights.

The commissioners unanimously approved the change order to the contact with Bryant Electric to replace the lights at the juvenile courtroom for $8,563, Griggs Center for $32,761, Gray Hill Center for $5,357, Mike Daniel Recreation Center for $31,545 and LaGrange Active Life Center for $34,863.

The total cost for Phase III of the project is $113,089, which will be paid for using capital funds.

In other business, the commissioners approved:

4 An upgrade to the Troup County Government Center HVAC control system in the amount of $34,331.10. Anderson said the current Tracer Summit BCU is no longer being installed and replacement parts are becoming very scarce and expensive. The upgrade will be paid for using ARPA funds.

4 A home occupation business license to allow Sony Guerra to operate his trucking business out of his home at 126 Jasmine Ln. Guerra has agreed to not park his tractor-trailer truck at the home.

4 A manufactured home placement for Russell Heiser at 1145 Shoemaker Rd.

4 A beer & wine application for Urmilkumar Patel at 3400 West Point Rd.