IPL targets 25 city locations for new streetlights

Indianapolis plans to install another 25 streetlights by the end of the year, continuing Mayor Joe Hogsett’s push to light up neighborhoods with higher accident and crime rates.

The city and Indianapolis Power & Light Co. announced Wednesday morning the location of the new lights, which will be spread out around all parts of the city.

They said they would announce the location of another 75 lights later. The locations are being determined by study funded by IPL, based on crime statistics, population density and existing utility infrastructure.

The announcement came about three months after Hogsett and IPL announced the first location, in front of the Paramount School of Excellence, an elementary school on the near-north side, just south of Brookside Park, and said more would be coming soon.

The new lights end a 35-year moratorium, which was put in place in 1981 under former Mayor Bill Hudnut as a money-saving measure.

Indianapolis has 92,000 streetlights, but most are paid for privately. The city pays to light only 29,000 lights, spending $5 million a year to do so. That money comes out of a $40 million pot of gas-tax revenue it receives annually from the state—a fund that is gradually shrinking due to more efficient cars that use less gas and pay fewer taxes.

Community leaders have been calling for new streetlights to help make neighborhoods safer.

The city is paying for the additional 100 streetlights through the savings of about $35,000 a month it was able to achieve in a recent IPL rate case approved by state regulators in March, the utility said. As part of that rate case, IPL also won approval to collect an additional $29.6 million in annual revenue, a move that will increase monthly rates for many households and businesses.

The location of the new lights:

— Nowland Avenue, from Parker Avenue to Oakland Avenue

— 850 N. LaSalle St.

— 612 N. LaSalle St., between North Street and St. Clair Street

— 5890 W. Vermont St., at the dead end

— 1223 N. Temple Ave.

— 2025 Sugar Grove Ave.

— 1041 W. 28th St.

— 10102 E. 42nd St.

— 3718 N. Bancroft St.

— 10th Street and Tacoma St. (on the south jog)

— 2817 N. Denny St.

— 4000 N. Eastern St., between 40th Street and Millersville Road

— 5947 Staughton Drive

— 838 W. 25th St.

— 2422 St. Paul St.

— 2240 S. Villa Ave.

— 1200 Edgewood Drive, between 11th Street and 13th Street

— 925 N. Kealing Ave.

— 2227 W. 14th St.

— 3905 Miller Drive

— 832 Carlyle Place, between 9th Street and St. Joseph Street

— 1040 W. 26th St.

— 3850 N. Franklin Road

— 8801 Bel Air Drive