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Power To Save: New Building for Powering Lehighton

LEHIGHTON — This is Public Power Week and Lehighton is celebrating by holding an open house on Friday for its new light and power building. Workers at Leh...
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LEHIGHTON -- This is Public Power Week and Lehighton is celebrating by holding an open house on Friday for its new light and power building.

Workers at Lehighton’s Power and Light Plant in Carbon County say this building is new and improved.

"This building is probably the most energy-efficient building right now in Lehighton, PA. It's been well insulated,” Lehighton borough superintendent Lonny Armbruster said.

Only two of the six heaters had to run at any given time this winter. Workers say the additional space and upgrades were desperately needed. Now they’ve got most of their equipment moved in and organized.

"It's fantastic, more room, obviously so much cleaner and easier to work in,” said assistant superintendent Barry Fisher.

Lehighton is one of only two municipalities in Carbon County that distribute power, reaching about 2,400 homes and 500 businesses.

Being locally owned, all decisions, including rate hikes are made in the borough.

Lehighton's Power and Light Department also has been working to remove old street lights and install new energy-efficient ones. They use one-third the power, and save the borough lots of money.

"We are now moving into the LED street lighting age and we're moving into smart metering, which is a huge, huge task for a little municipal,” said Armbruster.

Replacing old meters with smart meters will let customers monitor how much energy they are using in basically real time.

You can take a look at this new place for yourself. The Lehighton Power and Light Plant has an open house Friday from 10 a.m. until noon to celebrate Public Power Week.

"This is taxpayer's money so they need the opportunity to come down here, see what they're paying for see what we're capable of doing,” said Fisher.

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