The City of Brundidge will be seeing new street lights downtown, this after the Brundidge city council approved the lights at its meeting Tuesday.

The lights will be LED technology, providing a whiter, brighter light that will not only be more energy efficient, but also longer lasting.

“These lights will be a very big change from what we’re looking at now,” said city manager Brit Thomas.

The project will cost roughly $83,000 total, with about $79,000 of that funding coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, meaning the city will only have to pay roughly $4,000. That money will come from the city’s Utility fund.

The project will see the lights at the intersection of Galloway Road and AL-93 replaced by the LED lights, with that replacement extending all the way to Pike County High School.

Some of the old lights are high-pressure sodium lights, and they will be moved to supplement the lighting on S.A. Graham Boulevard.

“We just kind of want to fill in the gaps there because there are parts that are very dark,” Thomas said.

The rest of the old lights are mercury vapor lights and must be disposed of according to state regulations.

The council also heard from Thomas on the status of the CDBG grant application, which is intended to fund a series of water and sewer improvements on S.A Graham Boulevard and Caldwell Street.

The new proposal calls for the project to be downsized somewhat due to rising costs, but if the grant were approved, a roughly $500,000 improvement project would take place, with $400,000 of that money coming from the CDBG grant. The city would provide a local match on the rest.

Thomas also presented the latest sales tax numbers for Brundidge.

The sales tax revenues for the period ending May 31 came in at about $33,000, the lowest total in the last four years.

The city has seen its sales tax revenues drop in both 2009 and thus far in 2010 from the high mark of 2008.

Year to date, the sales tax revenues are down 5.46 percent from last year.

However, Thomas said the situation is not all that dire.

“The key is you don’t want to say it’s acceptable, but at the point we are in these times, you can live with it,” Thomas said.

The council also heard from local resident Samuel Green, whose property at 121 Galloway Road had been deemed a dangerous building by the council.

Green requested the opportunity to get the property up to code, and will meet with Thomas before the next council meeting to determine the feasibility of saving the property.

The next council meeting will be August 3.