If some streets and sidewalks south of Boston look different to you lately, there’s good reason: Those high-pressure sodium street lights that have long bathed both in a yellow tinge have been replaced with brighter, bluer, and more energy-efficient LEDs.
Municipalities statewide are pressing ahead with plans to make the switch, aided by more than $4.3 million in grants that Governor Charlie Baker’s administration announced in late September. Local grant recipients included Brockton, Cohasset, Foxborough, Hanover, Holbrook, Quincy, Rockland, and Weymouth.
Others — including Dedham, Easton, Randolph, Sharon, and Westwood — have already completed LED street light retrofit programs.
The grant of more than $38,000 to Cohasset won’t cover the costs of converting all of the town’s street lights. That tab is expected to be about $170,000, said Mary Jo Larson, who chairs the town’s Alternative Energy Committee.
