Two years after the Sturgeon Bay city council wrangled over the idea of pulling the plug on some street lights to save money, a recommendation from a committee of the whole meeting Tuesday evening uses information gathered in 2009 to form the basis for a plan to eliminate about 120 lights in the city. During debate on a recommendation from the community protection & services committee, alderman John Lodl noted that the impetus behind the street light reductions was the need to find budgetary savings of $57,813. To do that, the committee recommended removing all overhead streetlights not located at an intersection & leaving most lights at the more heavily trafficked streets, including Egg Harbor Road, Green Bay Road, Neenah Avenue, Maple Street & Michigan Street. Staff at Sturgeon Bay Utilities came up with a plan to eliminate 326 of the city’s 768 overhead streetlights, saving about $57,000 annually. Alderman Joe Stutting said specific criteria was needed if lights were to be turned off throughout the city…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/N2032.mp3|titles=Joe Stutting]
But not everyone was interested in removing more than 300 streetlights immediately. Hence the decision to follow the lead set in 2009. Alderman James Abeyta said the streetlights could be taken out of operation in stages…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/N2033.mp3|titles=James Abeyta]
It should be noted that by following the recommendation laid out by the committee of the whole, the city council would have to deal with a shortfall of close to $40,000 to meet its budgetary requirements. It should also be noted that when the city council takes up the matter, it could ignore the streetlights recommendation & move in a completely different direction.
