The second volume of The Illuminator contained a summary of the May 21 CCNA march to City Hall, and excerpts from the transcribed responses of Council Members after they heard three HOURS of individual testimony opposing the City's cost sharing policy to pay for ongoing infrastructure maintenance and support. It is in the process of being scanned for a link to this site.

Aren't street lights paid for by our tax dollars?
Not in Champaign. According to the 1993 Street Light Master Plan adopted by the City Council on November 16, 1993, the cost sharing ratio for rehabilitation is set up so that property owner pay 75% of the project cost and the City of Champaign pays 25% of the project cost from its Capital Improvement Fund. That Plan estimated the Area 4A project to cost approximately $2.5 million for rehabilitating our 728 streetlights (that's $3,500 per pole), comparable to the $6 million that Urbana is spending from their General Revenue Fund over the next nine years to rennovate 3,500 of their historic-style lighting (at only $1,715 per pole, or approximately HALF of our projected cost). At their May 21, 1998 meeting, the Champaign City Council acknowledged that there was in fact no "city standard" light pole, agreed that the current historic "short poles" were of value to the City, and voted to cost share with the Area 4A property owners at a 50-50 percentage to restore them.

What are our Utility Taxes associated with the Franchise Fee Revenue?
City Utility Taxes are included in your power and water bills. Also, the utilities pay a Franchise Fee to the City. Why aren't these funds being counted as citizen contributions? Scott Christensen asked these questions of Betsy Byrnes, the City of Champaign Financial Analyst. Her answer is a shocker -- we scanned it for you to read: Byrnes' May 8, 1998 memo. (Did YOU know that Illinois Power Company provides the City with 166,100 Therms of Natural Gas at no charge and provides one-half of the cost of electricity for street lights and one-half of the cost of street lamps? Someone should ask if this "help" that the City is getting from Illinois Power Company is taken into account when the Public Works Department claims that Option 3, KEEPING our incandescant street lights, claims that the next 40 years of Energy and Maintenance Costs will be $491,500 for Electrical Energy and $307,000 to Clean and Re-lamp the Fixtures. And, if they ARE counting the Utility Taxes in these figures, why aren't they instead listed under Costs Paid by Owners (i.e. the tax PAYers)? They claim that the Property Owner's Cost is $0! Who do they think provides the funds for the City General Revenue?!!

What are our rehabilitation options?
Good question. As explained by Rick Marley, Champaign Public Works Dept. Assistant City Engineer, at an April 28, 1998 public information meeting, there were nine alternatives, or "Cost Estimate Assumptions," being explored by the Publics Works Department. These were presented at the May 21, 1998 City Council meeting. A revised report was mailed out May 1, 1998 to every property owner (tax payer) in Area 4A. We have scanned it and reprinted it (see below). Also, we have provided some day and night photos of the options being offered (see farther below). However, the October 9, 1998 City Survey sent out to Area 4A residents severely cut these options. Why? You'd have to ask Rick Marley.

Please note that, if the current historical cast iron poles are replaced or removed, 100% of the salvage value of these poles will be applied toward reducing the City's share of the cost-sharing "for the removal cost."

Public Works Department's Area 4A Street Light Improvement Project Cost Estimates Glossary of Street Light Terms,
page 1 - PWD cover letter, May 1, 1998,
page 2 - Options 1-3,
page 3 - Options 4-6, and
page 4 - Options 5-9.

Photos of our current historic streetlights:

• as now (incandescant bulbs) during night, this shot is taken looking down Clark Street toward the Champaign City Building. The brighter light on the left edge of the photo is a mercury vapor light in someone's yard (for comparison).

Photos of some of the alternatives being proposed:

• outside the Champaign Public Works Department Building, these are the old cast iron poles refitted with High Pressure Sodium luminaires.
• Photo of new 12 ft. tall cast aluminum replica streetlights outside the Champaign City Building using HPS luminaires, clear-sanded globes, and refractor cones.
• Photos of cast aluminum tall poles (22.5 ft.) with 12 foot mast arms during the day and at night.

Twenty-nine year Area 4A resident and CCNA co-president Frank Kearney, a retired electrical engineer with 40 award-winning years of engineering experience, recently had an article published in the News- Gazette. Although they changed his original title from "Infrastructure: streetlights and portapotties" to a more conservative "Citizens pay to see the light," the text remains the same! We offer an online version, and a scanned version of the 1993 Street Lighting Master Plan's Table 9.1: Street Lighting Implementation Plan, which identifies EVERY CHAMPAIGN NEIGHBORHOOD scheduled for street light rennovations -- with 75% of the cost billed to the residents! (Since this Table was designed to be read horizontally on the paper, the scanned image is best read by printing it out and turning the printout on its side.)

Kearney article
1993 Street Light Master Plan cover page
Table 9.1, page 1
Table 9.1, page 2
Table 9.1, page 3
Table 9.1, page 4

Last modified: December 3, 1998