On Thursday, the City Council will look at a contract worth $109,000 with Preferred Landscaping & Lighting to install and remove 150,000 C-7 LED lights on 200 trees along the River Walk for the upcoming holiday season.
In direct response to public outcry, the city plans to completely remove the minibulbs that were wrapped around tree trunks last year along the River Walk, and use them on city parks and facilities.
The C-7 grade of light is larger than the ubiquitous minibulb and therefore ideal for dangling from tree branches.
However, the city intends to stick with LEDs and not return to incandescent bulbs, which was another public criticism.
In all, the cost of LED lights on the River Walk this season totals $344,752.
In May, the council approved the purchase of $92,596 in C-7 LEDs. Upcoming expenses include the removal of the wrapped mini-LEDs from last year ($48,000) and the permanent installation of LED lighting on downtown bridges ($95,156).
When the switch to LEDs was approved by the City Council in August 2011, the second year cost was calculated at $114,461.
Last season, the city ended up spending $625,723 — $45,000 over budget — to introduce minibulb LEDs to the River Walk.
LED lights on the River Walk have been funded mostly via the hotel occupancy tax.
On the street-level, the city expects the installation of the LED minibulbs in city parks and facilities to cost $49,000.
Before LEDs were introduced to the River Walk in 2011, the job cost roughly $75,000 a year using incandescent bulbs. The expense was paid for mostly by the Paseo del Rio Association.
Another source of criticism was just how much money the LEDs were saving the city on its CPS Energy bill.
The savings in the city's electricity bill from the 2010 season to 2011 was around $2,000, or 21,967 kilowatt-hours of energy, according to downtown operations department.
Draping the lights from the River Walk's tree canopy, rather than wrapping them around trunks, should also solve the infamous squirrel problem.
Squirrels chewed on the wires because they were easily accessible wrapped around the trunks.
Simply put, because the C-7s will dangle, they will be more difficult for the squirrels to get to them. This explains why the squirrels weren't a problem in previous years, Steve McCusker, executive director of the San Antonio Zoo, said in an interview last year.
A portion of the cost overrun last year as $10,000 to replace lights damaged by squirrels.
