Leamington Council is moving forward with a $25,000 project to have its streetlight network mapped out before it looks for companies to bid on installing new LED lights in town.

The muncipality’s five-year capital plan shows $1.3-million is needed to change over the roughly 2,200 streetlights in Leamington to light emitting diode technology.

“We’ll probably do them in phases,” says Leamington Mayor John Paterson, stressing the mapping is a first step before committing funds to new street lighting. “There’s no way we can afford to just dump $1.3-million, we don’t have that kind of cash laying around.”

Huron Geomatics out of Wingham will do the mapping work for the municipality. In approving the project, council also established LED techonolgy as the standard for streelights in Leamington going forward.

A report to council shows streetlights with LED technology would save the municipality $150,000 a year in energy costs and $80,000 a year in maintenance costs while making its $1.3-million investment back withing five to six years.