After being tabled at the July 5 regular meeting, the Little Elm Town Council on Tuesday approved Town Engineer Jason Laumer's request for additional funding to replace existing metal halide street light with LED street lights along Eldorado Parkway from Little Elm Parkway to Farm-to-Market Road 423. The item passed by a 3-2 vote.

The item was a change order to the street lighting of $38,265 for the Streetscape and Gateways Improvements project. Laumer provided answers to questions from the council from the meeting in July. Questions put forth included whether LED lights include toxic materials, how long LED technology has been around and where the materials are made.

The LED lights are mercury and lead-free and have been out since the 1960s. The high-output LEDs for street-light use have been around for over 10 years. The poles and lights are made at Philips Hadco, the supplier of the LED lights, and the LEDs qualify for "Made in the U.S.A."

In other business, the council approved using Hidell and Associates for the Library Expansion project in the amount of $108,950. The expansion includes renovation to the existing library as well as incorporating additional space within the Town Hall Center.

The $835,000 expansion will double the current library space, allowing for more room for larger book and audiovisual collections, more space for age programming, separate areas for youth and adults, increased computer availability, additional meeting rooms and study areas. Also included is remodeling of the utility billing office and minor work on the second floor for better acoustics. Funding for this project comes from the previously approved 2009-2014 Recreation and Leisure Bonds.

The council also accepted Oak Point's request to adjust the boundaries of its extraterritorial jurisdiction to be included in Little Elm's jurisdiction in an effort to clean up the area of 4.4 acres of land located on the east side of Farm-to-Market Road 720 at Oak Point's southern boundary. The area includes 15 lots, some of them vacant.

Town Manager Ivan Langford described the approval as a positive move for both communities. The town will implement environmental health and public safety ordinances and regulations to the ETJ.

The council granted CoServ Electric permission to place poles and wires on the town's rights-of-way as part of a coalition of cities in reinstating the utility's franchise agreement. The council signed a 10-year agreement, which includes the utility's franchise fee for use of the property that is paid to the town.

The agreement does not address electric rates.