ARLINGTON — The city will finally be getting rid of the last of its High-Pressure Sodium light bulbs, and upgrading to the Light-Emitting Diode bulbs that are now standard throughout Snohomish County.

In 2012, the Public Utility District upgraded all the lights it maintains within Arlington from HPS to LED, but that left 121 lights that the city is responsible for maintaining.

During the July 5 City Council meeting, Public Works Director Jim Kelly proposed that the city accept a low bid of almost $63,600 from Lumenal Lighting to convert those streetlights, many along Olympic and 67th avenues, to LED.

The money is provided by a Relight Washington Program of the state Transportation Improvement Board grant.

The city received a $79,238 grant from the TIB in 2015, to reduce streetlight operating costs while saving energy and renewing dated infrastructure. From there, bidding was opened June 28, and eight contractors submitted entries.

“We all grew up with incandescent bulbs, which were measured by wattage, or how much energy they consumed,” Kelly said. “Now, bulbs are also rated by lumens, or how much illumination they provide, and degrees of Kelvin, which indicates the color temperature.”

Kelly explained that Arlington would be sticking to the lower end of the Kelvin scale, not only so that the city can be certified dark-sky compliant, but also to avoid the blue shades of lighting at the upper end of the scale, which have been found to cause vision problems for older people, as well as to disrupt the circadian rhythms necessary for sleep.