The historic Old North End, one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Colorado Springs, got a pass when the city turned off streetlights in every other residential area earlier this year to save money, officials said today.
“While some of my constituents living in rougher neighborhoods have had their lights turned off, lights in the affluent Old North End are still burning bright,” Councilman Sean Paige said today in an e-mail. “That seems to indicate that a double standard exists.”
According to city e-mails, the historic-looking ornamental streetlights on Wood Avenue, Tejon Street north of Uintah Street and in Old Colorado City haven’t been deactivated.
City spokesman John Leavitt said those lights weren’t turned off because the city initially thought that residents and businesses in those areas were paying for their operation and maintenance.
But after a complaint and further investigation, the city realized that residents in the Old North End aren’t paying for the operation and maintenance of their lights, he said.
“It was determined that they should be treated like any other neighborhood,” Leavitt said, adding that streetlights in the Old North End soon will be deactivated.
“It was an oversight,” he said. “It was a mistake.”
The lights in Old Colorado City along the Colorado Avenue shopping district won’t be deactivated because businesses pay for their operation and maintenance, which is also the case in downtown Colorado Springs, he said.
Paige said people were wondering why all the lights in the Old North End were still on.
“I’d heard through the rumor mill that some streetlights weren’t turned off in town, so I started asking around,” he said this morning in a telephone interview.
“I had lunch with (Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte) early last week. I raised the issue with him, and he himself mentioned that he had taken a drive recently on the northside and was noticing how bright it was out there,” said Paige, who plans to raise the issue at today’s City Council meeting.
Leavitt said the city made a concerted effort to treat the entire city fairly.
“We started in the Broadmoor Bluffs area to turn off lights and fanned out from there because we very conscience of what the appearance could be,” he said.
“If we decided to start shutting off lights in the southeast portion of the city near Deerfield Hills or something like that, it would be horrible,” he said. “It would appear that we were targeting the less affluent areas, so we on purpose started in an area that we considered to be sort of affluent – the Broadmoor Bluffs area – and spread throughout the city in a patchwork way.”
The city has turned off about 10,000 of the estimated 24,500 streetlights in Colorado Springs, Leavitt said. The city plans to turn off about 1,100 more to meet a cost-saving goal of $1.2 million this year, he said.
About 520 streetlights have been turned back on under a streetlight adoption program, Leavitt said.
Sean Paige the only one in town capable of asking questions that need to be asked or the only one with sufficient testosterone?
I say turn them all off except at intersections. Then we can start talking about thousands of acres of turf medians the city continues to maintain at our expense.
Since the street lamps are being turned off, is that portion of the tax bill being turned off, too?
Just wondering…
Scandal! LOL. Not.
Turn off all lights except at intersections, eh? Stop maintaining medians? Sandra you want a tax bill cut? It’s never cheap enough for any of you is it?
you can bet they are still on at colorado college too. though, they might actuall be paying for them. BTW, quit misrepresenting “the old north end” . . . the area you are talking about is not the “old north end”
search for the “North End Diner” . . . and then you’ll know. “Peypton,” has been around as long as, if not longer than many of the houses on “North Cascade Avenue and Wood Avenue. The old coal miners could not afford to live there . . . nor did they want to. I know a guy who used to tend the coal furnaces down there back in the day when he was just a wee lad! His dad worked in the coal mines below Cragmoor.
Typical city council politics until their actions are called into question, then the igonrance card is dropped. Another reason why we need to clean house in the city council next election.
The favoritism has been blatant all over town. Start looking around. Some cul-de-sacs were left with their lights on while others were left with them on. I guess it just depends who lives where. Also Delmonico had very few lights turned off while Austin Bluffs Parkway had most turned off, even by Colorado Springs Christian School. I thought schools were to have their lights left on. Aren’t the Christian kids as important as the public school kids or the CC students?
Zen, I wasn’t asking for a tax cut. Go back and read my post again. I asked if that part of the tax bill that specifically pays for our lights will be cut from the tax bill if the lights aren’t being used.
Some cities add that fee to the electric bill. However it is paid, if people are being billed specifically for street lamps while the streetlamps are deactivated, then there is something wrong with that picture. It is a no-no to deliberately bill people for a service they are not receiving. It’s called fraud.
So if the taxpayers see a utility bill or tax bill that itemizes the street lamps in any way, shape, or form and the city is receiving money for that service but have cut that service, then the city needs to either to either turn the lamps back on or issue some refunds.
IF that is what is going on. I’m not saying it is, I’m asking if it is. Understand the difference?
If it’s not, then great.
Whoa! You mean to tell me that a neighborhood where each household probably pays as much in taxes as entire developments elsewhere had their lights left on?! What’s this world coming to, anyway?
There is no doubt a Pulitzer in the offing here…
Joe, I hear that! How is that the “Old North End?”
I think it’s a great idea. There are areas in Arizona, Northern Tucson and Fountain Hills in PHX area for example that have NO streetlights by design. It does get dark and that is what night is supposed to be. Stargazing is extraordinary in those areas. You are always permitted to put as many lights on the exterior of your house that you want but most folks use very low wattage lighting because they like it dark.
Does anyone recall when the Hunts put bright lights on the top of Pikes Peak? You would have thought it lit up the whole city the way everyone was complaining about the bright lights keeping them up at night. BS. It’s probably the same people complaining about the streetlights being turned off.
I say turn them all off – then there is no favoritism to complain about.
Typical, business as usual, not a shock for some one that has been here a long time. An idea, have the city tear down the 24,000 + lights and scrap out the copper for money to fix there revenue short comings.
I grew up in a smallish town in South Carolina. If you wanted a street light, you called the utility company and ordered one. Within a day or two, they came out to your house.
Unless there was one near your house already, they came and added one.
If one was already there, they activated it. Either way, it was about $4.00 a month (in the mid-1980′s).
How is this so difficult to figure out?
“It was an oversight,” he said. “It was a mistake.”
One in a LOOOOOONNNGGG list of many.
I noticed that the lights that were deactivated all have an orange band around them, way at the top. I’m curious how many city workers it took to do that, and how long? How much were they paid? Knowing our city management, it was probably as much as it would have cost to leave the lights on! LOL
There is NO specific part of your tax bill that pays for the streetlights (nor is it on your utility bill either). The funds come from the General Fund, which has to be spread out among a lot of different uses. This is just the latest to get cut to balance the budget.
And I just don’t get the big deal – there are dozens and dozens of special districts around this City – some for landscpaing, some for lighting, some for snow removal, etc. where those folks pay more to get certain things. I am glad someone at the City took the time to actually look up whether a neighborhood was or was not paying for the operations of the special lights they paid for before they went to shut them off. Because if the City/CSU had shut them off and the neihborhood was paying for them, you would be complaining about teh staff having to waste time to go back to turn them on. Give these people a break for god sake!
@Jefe:
Check out the Skyway neighborhood right here in COS for another example. We also have no streetlights by design. Funny…Springs Utilities tried to force them upon us just a few short years ago but we shot that proposal down. You’re welcome taxpayers!
Utilities “thought” the Old North End was paying for the street lights. Their assumption is odd isn’t it?
This is a fair and accurate story, but readers interested in understanding the fuller context behind my questions and critique can find that at my blog: http://www.locallibertyonline.org/paige_blog.php
Sean Paige
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