COLORADO SPRNGS, COLO. -- As Colorado Springs city crews prepare to reactivate residential streetlights impacted by the 2010 budget cuts, some citizens have expressed an interest in keeping a streetlight off.
In order to keep a residential streetlight off citizens must call the City’s Traffic Engineering Division at (719) 385-2852 or send an email to: streetlights@springsgov.com by Dec. 31. After the initial call is made, all necessary paperwork must be completed and received by the city no later than Feb. 15.
The 'double deadline' is in place to try and balance the interests of those wishing to keep streetlights off with those wishing to have streetlights turned back on.
“Our hope is to make it as easy as possible for a citizen to call the City about a desire to keep a streetlight off and work with neighbors to gain their agreement," City Traffic Engineer Dave Krauth said in a statement. "But we also want to start turning lights back on for everyone else as soon as possible."
According to Krauth, interested citizens must call 385-2852 by Dec. 31 to notify the city of their intent to get neighbor agreement to keep a streetlight off. The citizens then have until Feb. 15 to document the approval of at least 67 percent of affected neighbors (as determined by city staff) by filling out and sending in a form to the City by Feb. 15. Forms will soon be available online or by calling 385-2852.
Crews will begin turning residential streetlights back on beginning the week of Jan. 2.
More than 8,000 residential and arterial streetlights were initially deactivated by the city in early 2010 to save about $1.3 million for the general fund. The program successfully saved budget dollars but changing economic conditions provided City Council with the financial flexibility to add residential streetlight maintenance back into the 2011 general fund budget.
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