District to bring street lights to Columbia Valley

JARED PABEN

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

KENDALL -- We can make the Columbia Valley a whole lot brighter -- and safer, say water and sewer district commissioners.

The Evergreen Water-Sewer District wants to bring street lighting to the dark, quiet Mount Baker foothills area, charging an estimated 1,000 customers roughly between $2 and $2.50 a month extra to pay for it. The plan would add 120 street lights to heavily traveled streets and intersections.

Some people say it'll make them safer.

"It should reduce crime, and the emergency vehicles will be able to find your home easier," said Veronica Dearden, an active member of KendallWatch, a community action group. "If you have a medical emergency, it's really hard to see house numbers without lights."

Also, schoolchildren wouldn't have to wait for the bus in the darkness anymore, she said.

The district already has approved the plan, and the County Council approved it on Tuesday, July 22. State law specifically lets water and sewer districts operate street-lighting programs.

The district, which serves the Paradise Lakes Country Club subdivisions along Kendall Road, plans to sign a deal with Puget Sound Energy. PSE would install and maintain the lights, largely on existing poles, and charge the district a monthly fee per light.

If asked, the district would also operate as many as 21 of the 33 total private lights already there and pay PSE to operate and maintain those. Residents could petition the district's three commissioners to add lights to the system.

PSE is preparing an agreement, said Norma Otto, a district commissioner. She hopes to have the lights installed this fall or early winter.

Pat Beasley lives in another subdivision, Peaceful Valley Country Club, that won't get the new lighting. But she and her husband, Dave, contacted PSE a year ago and got their own street light. It costs them an extra $10 a month for the light, designed to reduce glare by casting light downward.

"That little bit of security, it's worth it," she said.

But the district's plan has its critics.

"I'm going: If you wanted to move into the city, why didn't you move into the city?" said Bill Bezanson, a Peaceful Valley resident and avid star gazer who fears the lights could harm his ability to see celestial bodies.

"There's no reason at all," he added. "All it does is light everything up so the criminals can see what they're doing."