McMinnville officials are meeting Tuesday night to begin the process that could return up to 300 streetlights to the city. A Street and Sanitation Committee meeting is schedule for 5:45 p.m.
Alderman Billy Wood, committee chairman, says he is against returning the streetlights.
“I don’t think people understand what this really means,” Wood said. “Returning these lights will deplete the Street Aid fund. Then you will have to borrow money to pave streets when you could have paid for it.”
Street Aid is a state-funded enterprise system. Money is allocated by the state annually and must be used for street-related costs such as lights, paving and signs.
Because the majority of McMinnville’s Street Aid budget was taken to pay for streetlights, the city reduced the number of streetlights in 2010 by about 900 to free up money for paving. Then, the city borrowed $2 million with the funds to be repaid from Street Aid.
In June, the city placed an additional $30,000 into Street Aid in order to return 300 streetlights which was estimated to cost $1,800 for installation and add $32,226 annually to the budget in recurring electric bills.
Wood says reversing what was done makes no sense.
“We’ve paved 25 streets and the downtown parking lots. Now, we are going to put the lights back up? Doing this will deplete the budget, but there are still streets that need to be paved. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for paving because we are, once again, using the money in Street Aid on streetlights.”
A Finance Committee meeting is also scheduled to discuss streetlights Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Alderman opposes returning streetlights
