Middletown not consideringstreetlight assessments in 2017

MikeRutledge  

Staff Writer

5:51 p.m Monday, Oct. 24, 2016

MIDDLETOWN

A plan toassess residents and businesses for streetlights — even those without suchlights on their streets — has fizzled, at least for now.

During theJan. 23 Middletown City Council retreat, City Manager Doug Adkins suggestedthat if elected officials implemented such assessments “ one of the things youcould do is start using it for paving in ’17.”

And in MayorLarry Mulligan Jr.’s State of the City speech in March, the mayor calledstreetlight assessments “a key element of the solution” for repairing thecity’s streets.

“Council willbe evaluating this in the coming months, and much needs to be considered for afair and equitable assessment,” Mulligan added at the time.

Adkins didnot place streetlight-assessments in his proposed 2017 budget and Mulligan saidhe has felt no push from his council colleagues on the streetlight issue.

Adkins in anemail Monday to the Journal-News called the streetlight-assessment idea“something that was just a concept to be explored at some later date before 2020.”

The idea wasto levy about a $3-per-month assessment on homes and businesses that would beused to pay the city’s street-lighting bills, which city government now pays toDuke Energy at a rate of about $750,000 per year. If residents and businesses werepaying that amount, city government would be free to spend it on paving, Adkinsexplained.

By the year2020, Adkins hopes city government will have enough extra revenue that it canpay for $3.59 million in paving. Adkins’ proposed 2017 budget includes $1.2million for paving of local streets.

“I don’t knowthat we ever really had a plan to institute it,” Mulligan said. “We’ve talkedabout it off and on for years, as a way to offset that cost. But it’s justalways been under consideration or evaluation. I don’t think anything’s aforegone conclusion, that we’re going to be doing it.”

Mulligan saidwhen he mentioned in March that the council would be taking up the concept thisyear, “one of the reasons I put it in there was to get the dialogue going.”

“I think theresponse hasn’t been that strong, either, from Doug, that we need to do it, orfrom council, that we need to say, ‘Hey, let’s go forward.’ I just haven’t fromanybody about it.”

Mulligan saidsome residents have pushed for the collections so paving could be done.

Adkins saidvia email one way the city is exploring cost-savings is to “convert our streetlights to LED (light-emitting diodes),” the way Hamilton started doing over 10 years in 2015.“This has the potential to save several hundred thousand dollars a year inelectric costs each year after we pay for the conversion,” he wrote.

“Saving moneyin street-light electric costs frees up the money currently being spent withouthaving to charge our citizens,” Adkins added. “We will be exploring this(switch to LEDs) in 2017 and intend to move forward next year with thisproject.”

CouncilMember Talbott Moon said converting street lights to LED in the near futureshould lead to significant savings on electric costs.

“Thosesavings could be spent on other city priorities, with my preference beingstreet paving,” he said, adding “I will need to see the financial implicationsof LED conversion before beginning any real discussion on an assessment.”

“I think itwould be a good idea,” said resident Emma Ferrigan. “I think citizensdefinitely should be paying for street lights because how many wrecks havethere been in Middletown?I would definitely do it next year.”

Debbie Egner,also a Middletownresident, also thought more spending on street repairs — even coming from herpocket — is a good idea: “They’re not real good at all,” she said of the roads.“There’s a whole lot to be done. Anything would help, I guess.”

Adkins saidwhen he visited Kansas City for a national city managerconference, he learned that city is experimenting with motion sensors on streetlights in quieter neighborhoods, which cut the lights to 50-percent power whenthere is no motion for 30 minutes.

Mostcommunities charge for streetlight costs, Adkins wrote. But: “If economicdevelopment is going gangbusters, there may not be any need. If we are stilllooking for paving funds, some future council may want to consider the topicfurther. We have a lot of homework and projects to complete before this wouldeven be considered a possibility.”