‘Smart city’ still in the works

Back in August, Yuma City Council approved a three-million-dollar project to make Yuma the first ‘smart city’.

The LED lights were set to be up and running by the end of 2017, but as of now, we’ve only seen a handful.

The city of Yuma said they’ve had some setbacks with the project. They want to make sure that all the LED lights meet the safety requirements.

At the moment the city is going through a selection process on the type of lights they will use, which is taking a little longer than expected.

These “nodes,” which are a four-by-four box, will sit on top of the streetlights. These will replace the current ones around town and they’ll do more than provide light.

The city said they are designed with everything from citywide Wi-Fi, 360-degree cameras, and microphones that can detect car crashes. Yuma will be one of the first two cities in the country to have a city-wide streetlight network.

“We just have a handful in place right now, kind of our test you know, normal do- diligence. Install a few, get some feedback. We’ve been moving the lights around to different neighborhoods and then going out and asking people what they think about them,” said city administrator Greg Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said in the next eight months, we will expect to see about 8,000 LED lights and 8,000 nodes around town.

The tech company AnyComm is investing ten million dollars in the project. The cost to the city will be about three million dollars. City of Yuma officials said the project will save the city more than four million dollars on electrical costs over the next 12 years.