A new program is taking shape to help cover the cost of installing street lights along Wilson Road in Rossville. Rather than moving forward with the citizen-requested special tax district to install and operate the lights, residents are now stepping forward to create an Adopt-A-Pole program.
For the past five years, the Wilson Road Neighborhood Group has been on a mission to get 33 lights installed on Wilson Road from its intersection with Happy Valley Road to the state line for increased safety on the dark and narrow thoroughfare. The overlay tax district would have affected 1,095 parcel owners with a roughly $4 annual charge per parcel in order to cover the estimated $4,000 in yearly electric bills.
In lieu of a tax, community members and businesses can adopt a pole for $125 a year with a five-year contract, amounting to $625 per pole, according to the Wilson Road Neighborhood Group.
The program, spearheaded by Pam Millard and Forrest Blakemore, has already recruited over a dozen residents and businesses willing to donate money for the lights, Millard said last week. By allowing community members to step up and donate, it will eliminate the need for a tax on all residents in the district, which could have increased in the years to come, she said.
This summer, the group went door-to-door with petitions both in favor and against the lights and related tax, and hosted community town halls in June and July to discuss the potential tax. Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield attended both meetings. Following the second town hall, he scheduled two public hearings on the proposed tax district, but both were canceled once the Adopt-A-Pole program was pitched.
David Roden, co-founder of the Wilson Road Neighborhood Group, said the idea of a donation program may get more community members involved.
The target date to have the lights up and running is Oct. 31, before daylight saving time ends on Nov. 3, so that kids waiting at bus stops on Wilson Road won't have to wait in the dark, said Roden.
Millard and the neighborhood group are working on a contract with the Electric Power Board to establish how the program will work.
"We just want the lights up," Roden said. "We don't care how."
Email Sabrina Bodon at sbodon@timesfreepress.com.