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.JlJc~. 17.2003 2: 31PM WBL CITY HRLL NQ.183 - P.3/4-- M E M 0 RAN DUM TO: City Manager and City Council FROM: City Engineer/Director of Public Works DATE: January 4, 1984 SUBJECT: Street Light Policy At the last City Council meeting, the Council briefly discussed a request for a mid black street light. The matter was tabled to a iu ture date to allow the staff to prepare a recommended street light pOlicy. Historically the City has installed street lights upon the re- quest of adjoining or abutting residents. The City annually in- stalls lights when requested by property owners at no cost to the City for the initial installation with the City paying operation- al costs. Currently the City has approximately 820 street lights. These include the wood pole aluminum arm "standard" installation and the downtown ornamental street lights. The Public Works street bUdget annually inclUdes an item for power costs for the Opera- tion of these street lights. For 1984 this power cost is approx- imately $88,000 - $90,000. In the early 1970 I s the Engineering Department explored vat'ious alternatives for a street lighting system. One alternative was to provide a system of street lights where the entire community was adequately illuminated. The typical standard 175 watt mer- cury vapor street light has a lighting radius of 150' _ 175'. Wha t this means is that to light every block Of the City. it would be necessary to space street lights every 300' _ 350'. To light City streets at this level would require an additional 600 street lights and would cost approximately $65,000 more per year to pay operational costs. We think this is inappropriate and cannot be funded with the current bUdget. . By current policy, lights are installed only at intersections and ends of cul-de-sacs. No mid block lights are allowed. However, blocks in the City range in length from 300' - 400' to as long as 1,400' - 1,600'. To arbitrarily say that no mid block lights are allowed, we believe is somewhat unreasonable. For Council consideration we have prepared a policy for mid block street lights. We have aSSumed that on the average the "old town" area east of T.B. 61 between Lake Avenue and T.H. 96 repre- sents an average level of lighting. In this area, average blOCkS are approximately 600 I in length. We think that this space for strflet lights is acceptable. To prOVide a standard for the in- stal lation of mid block Iights, we recommend the following pol- iey: /)(~C