In the past six months, more than 100 streetlights in Chalfont have overheated. In rare cases, some have caught fire.
“It started with a simple one light that had never seen issue,” said Borough Manager Shawn Curran in an email to the Herald. “The first light was repaired within days. Then about a month ago, it happened again...We only put the pieces together and saw that there was a pattern about a month ago.”
Curran briefed Chalfont Borough Council at its July meeting.
Though no harm has been done to nearby people or surrounding infrastructure, the fire department has been called on at least four separate occasions concerning these smoking or burning lights.
The streetlights were initially provided to the borough by Signify, a commercial lighting company previously known as Philips Lighting N.V. Though the malfunctioning streetlights are roughly five years past their warranty, Signify has agreed to not only replace, but upgrade 50 lights with new LED models, each with drivers and surge protectors.
Curran characterized this as an incredibly generous gesture by the company, seeing as they were under no legal obligation to replace any number of the lights.
Of course, more lights will need to be ordered soon. Those will have to be paid for by the borough, but Signify has already put aside the necessary supplies for their anticipated future order.
In the meantime, 12 temporary light fixtures are in the process of being installed to replace malfunctioning lights until their upgrades arrive. At press time, 10 of the 12 had been installed, and the borough was waiting to hear back regarding when new light parts will be available.
If all goes according to plan, installation of the 50 LED models should begin within the next few weeks and will take approximately a month to complete. However, the remaining light fixtures necessary to replace the malfunctioning ones will not be ordered until at least the start of next year, as borough officials would like to include the expense in their 2024 budget.
In other meeting news, the council interviewed and approved Joanne Doyle as an alternate member of the borough’s zoning hearing board and formally acknowledged New Britain Township’s 300th anniversary.
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