A win for homeowners

Monday, May 12, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

When a North Las Vegas homeowners association wanted to replace its gas street lamps with electric models, it was told it would cost $105,000 — just to cut the gas lines.

The homeowners association president, Richard Cherchio, said that was unacceptable. The idea of removing the gas lamps was largely a cost-saving measure, and paying the gas company such a sum would break the bank. The lamps cost the association about $9,300 a month — or about $20 per home each month. Electric lights would cost about $1.50 a home a month.

The problem was that the lamps and the gas lines supplying them were often installed in ways that make it difficult to remove them, which has made the cost of changing the lamps overly expensive.

But instead of being deterred, Cherchio pressed ahead and started talking with officials at Southwest Gas Co. and the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. As Mike Trask reported in Wednesday’s Las Vegas Sun, the commission agreed to a deal: The gas company will let the homeowners association do much of the work and in return will dramatically cut the costs of capping the lines.

As a result, Cherchio’s association and others will be able to install electric lights. The association expected to recoup the costs of the conversion in about two years.

“This is actually everything we desired,” Cherchio said of the agreement. “It’s a good green issue and it’s a good savings for all the associations.”

The agreement could affect dozens of other communities with gas lamps. There are about 17,000 gas lamps in the Las Vegas Valley, many of which were installed by the gas company as part of a deal with developers, before homeowners had a say in the matter.

This is a good agreement because it gives homeowners a way to exercise some control over their energy bills.