SCRANTON -- One of the highlights of this weekend's La Festa Italiana in downtown Scranton will be the official lighting of the Electric City sign, and in this week's Power to Save we see how the new light bulbs in the sign will likely save the city on electricity costs.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers run the show on courthouse square days before any food shows up for La Festa Italiana. They run electrical wires for vendors. Other workers are busy setting up tents.
Appropriately, you'll see a lot of red, green, and white on Courthouse Square during La Festa Italiana weekend. But, this year, you'll see a lot more of it high above our heads.
La Festa Italiana paid for the iconic Electric City sign on Linden Street to be refurbished just in time for this year's festival. Many of the bulbs had burned out. They were replaced with LED lamps.
"With those bright LED lights, you'll be able to see those forever. And it will last forever. That's the good thing with those LED lights," said IBEW Local 81 member Gino Arcurie.
And those LED lamps use less energy.
Kevin MacDonough of Mac Signs in Scranton showed us the colorful bulbs compared to the incandescent ones that have been used in the sign since the 1930s.
"As far as savings to the city, what they used to spend approximately $6,000 for on a yearly basis, will now cost them a tenth of that. It will cost them approximately $580 a year."
It's a big savings, and the LEDs last for 100,000 hours. When the new bulbs are lit, it will look like the Electric City sign did when it was built in 1937. MacDonough has the original blueprints.
"And on the original prints: red circle, green circle."
Purely coincidence that it will match the Italian flag on La Festa weekend.
The Electric City sign will be lit of Saturday around 8:30 p.m.
