City officials turn out the lights on school system
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According to City Administrator Herb Llewellyn, the city first provided the security lights several years ago, in response to the threats posed by the rash of school shootings during the mid to late 1990s. After the disaster at Columbine High School in Colorado, city and county officials wanted to do everything they could to prevent a similar event from ever happening here.
The city’s contribution was a combined 26 security and decorative lights placed in strategic locations at Warren County High School, Hickory Creek Elementary, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Warren Academy and the Adult Learning Center.
The cost to operate these lights, which are leased from McMinnville Electric System along with several wood and concrete poles, is approximately $6,000 a year. Llewellyn said since the project began, the bill has been paid directly from the city’s general fund.
With the state’s current financial crisis, however, proposals to fund the budget have included removing the revenue the state has traditionally shared with local governments. Should this happen, city officials fear $1 million of the total $2.4 million of its state-shared taxes could be withheld. As a result, the Finance Committee voted last month to no longer provide the lights.
“We provided these lights to the schools so they could see if they like them and if they were necessary. If they think they are, they can continue the program,” said Llewellyn.
Meeting Monday morning, the School Board’s Building, Grounds and Insurance Committee meet to discuss its options. On hand was MES representative Ralph Dunn, who provided committee members with details of the current agreement and a breakdown of the charges to each school for the lights.
While saying they did not want to sacrifice the security of students, committee members also expressed their concern of taking on another expenditure at a time of financial uncertainty.
School system maintenance director Donnie Caldwell told the committee he knew of a few places where “a couple of lights at a couple of schools” could be removed as a way to cut costs, as well as the possibility of replacing some of the 1,000-watt bulbs with less expensive, lower wattage bulbs. With these cost-saving measures, the committee and then the full board voted to allocate $3,000 a year to maintain the lights.