Joplin falls short on streetlight count

Nov. 27—Though there were supposed to be an estimated 3,700 streetlights installed with money from a half-cent public safety sales tax approved by Joplin voters in 2006, fewer than half that many are in operation now.

City officials and Liberty, the local electricity utility, have been working for about two years to determine how many of the lights that were to be put up under the 2006 tax are currently in place and how many are yet to be installed.

Questions were raised by residents in recent years about how many lights had been added because there still are some dark neighborhoods and a lack of lights in some areas of the city. There also were questions about how many poles were being billed to the city sales tax.

But as city officials looked into the questions, the records were found to be confusing because so many lights were destroyed in the 2011 tornado.The program to install lights was put on hold until the accounting was finished. A report with updated information was presented to the City Council at a Nov. 8 meeting.

In that report, the city's finance director, Leslie Haase, reported that 1,891 lights have been installed under the public safety tax.

The number is lower than had been discussed in 2006, and Haase said it is the result of a miscalculation by city staff on how many could be installed and where. City staff had planned for lights to be installed in half-block intervals and alleys, but found that easements were not available in all the locations needed to put up that many.

In addition to the public safety sales tax lights, though, another 3,248 in operation are paid for under the city's transportation sales tax, according to the report by Haase. Total streetlights that exist in the city were counted at 5,367, according to the finance report.

There are 187 still planned for installation. Among the areas that are on the list to get additional lights are areas of F Street, Glenview Avenue and Jaccard Place, on Glendale Road, Birch Lane, Prigmore Avenue, on 30th Street, on 15th Street and Duquesne Road.

More locations have been identified as needing lights as the result of requests by residents. The city will work with Liberty to see where those lights could be installed, Haase said.

History of lights

Before the passage of the half-cent public safety sales tax in 2006, streetlights were installed at intersections with the intent of creating safer conditions for vehicle travel in neighborhoods and along major streets, Haase said.

During discussions of the proposed public safety tax, "we said we were going to add street lights every half-block. At that time, we didn't have a current count of streetlights and city staff estimated the number based on the number of miles of streets that had lights," Haase said at the Nov. 8 City Council work session.

Since early in the city's history, it had been common practice to install streetlights only on street corners.

The city's first electrical generating plant was built in 1887 between Fourth and Fifth streets and Joplin and Wall avenues. The first streetlight was put up at the corner of Fourth and Main streets, followed by 12 more in downtown, according to newspaper accounts.

Those early streetlights were arc lamps, which produced a bright light by arcing a current of electricity between two electrodes. While the arc lamps pierced the darkness at the immediate site, the middle of the city's blocks between the lights was still quite dark.

Over the decades, the type of light bulb and the number of lights changed, but the practice of installing them at intersections or along major roadways did not.

"Prior to the passage of the half-cent public safety sales tax, streetlights were installed for traffic safety purposes in neighborhoods and along major corridors," Haase said. "Provisions were to 'double' the streetlights — and I say double in quotes for a reason. We were going to add lights at half-block intervals for public safety purposes to help deter crime. That was included in the tax."

It was still the case that spaces between the light poles were dim, conditions believed to feed crime, particularly as drug trafficking grew here. Police officials said crimes of theft and larceny among others were on the rise because that's how drug users paid for their habit.

Joplin's older neighborhoods were already in a state of decline, but the growing drug problem put pressure on those areas, according to Joplin police.

Police wrote in a 2010 report submitted to the Arizona State University's Center for Problem-Oriented Policing that property conditions were declining by the proliferation of drugs and crime, causing what police referred to as a "death spiral" in those neighborhoods.

People were asking city officials to find ways to put more police officers on the streets to try to rescue those neighborhoods. Those were the conditions in which the public safety sales tax came to fruition.

Among the uses for the revenue from the tax for crime fighting purposes were the addition of 29 police officer positions and increased streetlights to try to deter crime that generally was happening in dark locations at night.

"Drug activities are not exclusive to poor neighborhoods, but there is usually a disproportionate level of such activities in declining or blighted neighborhoods, where residents are predominantly renters," police stated in its problem-oriented policing report. "The same is true of Joplin. The lack of lighting provided a level of concealment for drug activities and related crimes. Residents in these neighborhoods were being victimized disproportionately compared to other areas of the city."

Mapping locations

In regard to the original plan for 3,700 lights, Haase said, "additional streetlight installations were successful in the older parts of the city where easements along the alleyways exist," she said.

"However, in the newer parts of town, easements don't exist," she said. "That means streetlights cannot be installed at half-blocks or alleyways" in those areas as proposed during the 2006 sales tax talks.

There are still three areas where streetlights need to be installed, Haase reported. "The plan is to work with Liberty to see what lights need to installed in the future."

City staff will continue to update the streetlight map. In the future, lights installed at corners will be funded by the transportation sales tax and any that can be installed in the middle of blocks will be paid through the public safety sales tax fund, Haase said.

Council member Phil Stinnett asked several questions directed at City Manager Nick Edwards. One was whether the city did not know at the time how many lights it was funding. Edwards said that the city did not know how many.

He asked what the ballot language in 2006 implied about the use of the term "double" streetlights. Haase said that there was list of projects tied to the sales tax proposal and that listed that doubling the number would add an estimated 3,700 lights.

Stinnett also asked about the definition of the term "right of way," whether it is in front of a house, on a side street or in an alley.

David Hertzberg, public works director, said the location and sizes of right of way varies. It could be in front of a house or on a side street.

Stinnett said he did not understand why lights could not be installed in the middle of a block or where there is no alley.

Hertzberg said there are places where there is no existing right of way where electricity could be run to reach the half-block location or alley.

'A fresh start'

Stinnett also questioned why there are no lights in some subdivisions when city code requires developers to have them installed or pay a bond to provide for future installation. There are no lights, for example, in the Hidden Hills subdivision.

City staff noted that would be looked at to provide a response.

He also questioned why no lights were installed on the new Shoal Creek bridge.

Haase said that there would be other lights installed where residents had requested or reported a need in addition to the 187 already identified. The public works department is working on getting the lights installed on the bridge, Haase said.

Council member Diane Reid Adams said it also is important to maintain the ones already installed. She said a light at 32nd Street and Iowa Avenue has been reported for a year and that it's still out. She asked if the bulbs can be replaced.

The city manager said he will take council requests to get these issues resolved with the electric company. He believes they want to provide quality lights and maintenance.

Stinnett asked for updates on the status of the installations.

Council member Keenan Cortez, who helped form a group to seek a sales tax to provide more police and fire protection, said he knows the intent then was to double the number of streetlights to reduce crime. But he is encouraged by the update on the status of the city's work to account for the lights and he encouraged city staff and Liberty to continue the work.

"We probably shouldn't have estimated the number of lights, but that was almost 20 years ago," Cortez said.

Councilman Chuck Copple said city officials did say the tax would be used to double the streetlights.

"That's why there's a distrust of people for Sixth and Main (City Hall). We have said we are going to double streetlights, and we're still not there," Copple said. "I have a problem with that."

The city manager said he could not defend what was said years ago, but city staff was trying to provide information now on what the streetlight network entails and what they are going deliver in the future.

"I think we'd like a fresh slate going forward," Edwards said. "We are showing processes for delivering new lights and accounting for them. We want to use this as a jumping-off point for a fresh start."