federal grant

ACPD to Get Night Vision Goggles, Training

By ARLnow.com

Criminals in Arlington will soon be afraid of the dark.

The Arlington County Police Department is set to receive 19 night vision goggles, valued at $178,125, as a result of a federal Homeland Security grant. Another $37,430 in grant money will cover training for ACPD’s tactical team, which will be using the goggles.

The equipment has an estimated life span of 5 to 7 years.

The funding for the goggles are part of a larger $1.6 million grant designed “to increase response capabilities of tactical teams [within] the National Capital Region.”

Update at 4:10 p.m. — The goggles “will provide the SWAT team with the capability to operate in low light situations such as buildings without power, wooded areas at night, etc.,” said Capt. Kevin Reardon of the police department’s Homeland Security Section.

County To Spend Stimulus Funds on LED Streetlights

By ARLnow.com

Arlington is devoting $500,000 in stimulus funds to convert old county-owned streetlights to energy-efficient LED streetlights, the county announced today.

Officials hope to replace 1,800 streetlights, or 40 percent of all county-owned lights, by the spring of 2011. The funds for the project will come from a federal energy efficiency and conservation grant.

After the initial push, the county will install 500 new streetlights per year. The conversion will take about six years to complete, and will produce a significant cost savings for the county.

The new lights are expected to cut energy consumption by about 60 percent and save more than $1 million per year, according to one estimate.

Even after the conversion, however, most streetlights in the county will be of the older, less energy-efficient variety. That’s because the vast majority of streetlights in Arlington are owned by Dominion Power. Dominion operates 11,700 lights under contract with the county, and those have not yet been scheduled for an upgrade.

“Arlington and Dominion are exploring options to improve the energy efficiency of those [streetlights] in the future,” the county said in a statement.