South Spring Street About to Get Darker

The Port Washington Common Council turned the lights out on a suggestion to test the effect of having fewer streetlights on South Spring Street before moving the lights to North Lake Street.

The move saves the city about $25,000 over purchasing brand new lights for North Lake Street. The call for new streetlights on North Lake Street comes after a recommendation from the Board of Public works to eliminate overhead utilities and replace the existing lights on the street.

We Energies would have charged almost $1,200 to "test" the lessened lighting — that is, turn the lights off on South Spring Street to decide whether the area would be sufficiently lit. The cost was divided at $640 to turn off the lights and $640 to turn back on, City Administrator Mark Grams said.

A new light system would have cost the city $48,500, whereas moving the streetlights costs $24,600. The plan calls for nine poles to be removed in an every-other pattern along South Spring Street, between Sunset Road and West Port View Drive.

Further, while the city pays more to operate a We Energies-owned lighting system, these are costs are already incurred no matter where the lights are located.

"Although the maintenance/energy costs for city owned systems is always substantially less than for We Energy systems, by moving the poles from South Spring Street, there will be no additional operational cost to the city," City Engineer Rob Vanden Noven wrote in his presentation to the Common Council.

It was Alderman Jim Vollmar who spoke up to suggest saving the $1,200 rather than paying We Energies so much to flip the switch.

"I say let's just do it, because why pay ($640) to test it ... people are just going to say 'Gee, the street lights are off,'" he said.

While Alderman Mike Ehrlich saw Vollmar's logic, he was quick to second-guess what might happen if the lights were removed only to reach the decision it was too dark.

But a small debate again squashed that concern; the area is mostly commercial, and residential sections nearby have additional lighting sources.

"No pun intended, I wasn’t trying to make 'light' of the subject," Alderman Dan Becker said, further calming concerns over whether to proceed with or forgo the testing. "Clearly, we're covered on this, I think we're good to go."