Printable VersionResidents in an Improvement District needed 425 signatures by Feb. 28 to stop paying $150,000 a year for neighborhood gas lights. They received 458.
“That group really deserves all of the credit for getting the word out to people in the community that this was happening,” Terry Harstad said. “I think people are going to be really happy with the end result when we no longer have to pay for these.”
Unisource Energy, the company that maintains the gas lamps, previously promised to remove the gas lamps at no cost to the residents if enough signatures were obtained.
However, before the company can get to work dismantling the lights, the City Council must approve the dissolution of the district next month, City Finance Administrative Services Manager Sandy McCormack said.
“(The council) are the ones to officially authorize the dissolution,” McCormack said, adding that she expects the council to approve the resolution in mid-April. “It’s really just a formality for them to do so. They’re going to go with the majority of the desires of the improvement district I’m sure.”
In the late 1960s Robert McCulloch designed the improvement district and about 300 original gas lamps in the area. The Finance Department’s June 2009 count of the lights showed 256 working lights, 43 not working, 24 missing and four broken. McCormack said the intent of the improvement district was to fund ongoing maintenance and utility costs of the gas lamps.
When new residents began moving to the area, they were not provided with information about the district and the charge, McCormack said previously.
“The item is clearly on the county property tax bill,” she said in January. “But that’s it. There was never a mechanism in place that said, “Hey welcome to the district, you need to pay this fee to have those lights.”
Unisource Energy determines the cost to the residents based on gas usage, the city determines the cost based on value and the county administers the tax levy, McCormack said. While the Finance Department would occasionally receive phone calls inquiring about the tax, the issue first became apparent when Unisource notified the city that about 10 to 15 lights would need to be replaced every year for nearly $1,000 each, McCormack said previously. The estimated expense of about $13,000 per year would mean an increase of about 14 percent.
“We decided we needed to make all of the homeowners aware of the cost because it is going up. The expense of maintaining them and the utility fees are coming up to $150,000 a year,” McCormack said in February, adding that the total is divided among residents based on the assessed property values. “Each residence, on average, is paying about $170 per year and that is going up.”
A few dozen residents have also indicated they are happy with the lights.
“I think they’re nice looking and I think they’re actually a bargain,” resident Nancie Echeverria said in February. “I think they add a lot to our neighborhood.”
Echeverria also wrote a Feb. 11 letter to the editor.
“When I paused to think about what the gaslights mean to me, I realized that thanks to them, I always have some light on my driveway and street when company arrives, or I am outside unexpectedly,” she wrote. “It gives me some feeling of security in the otherwise total darkness.”
Communication between Unisource and the city has indicated the lights might take awhile for removal.
“(Unisource) has been very clear that it could be a lengthy process,” McCormack said in January. “Some will be easy to remove but others will be more difficult to remove. There are also going to be landscaping issues because unlike the city, Unisource does not have a landscaping crew.”
Removing the lights is only one of the options, McCormack said.
“We did have homeowners ask us if they could convert the lights from gas to solar,” she said previously. “The language of the improvement district is so specific, that they would have to dissolve it to even go with a different type of lighting.”
You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com
Article Rating