Parks In The Spotlight But Maintenance Manager Is Trying To Enlighten Neighbors About The Price Of Security

For the last two years, people living around city parks have petitioned, pleaded and lobbied for security lighting.

They’ve gotten results. In fact, they’ve been so successful that some city officials are worried about the electric bill if still more parks are illuminated.

But neighborhood advocates say the cost is well worth it.

“The people around these parks, they want those lights,” said Sandy Richards, a crime prevention specialist with the Spokane Police Department. “There’s safety when they can see places lit up. It lowers the fear of crime and right now in this city there’s a lot of that.”

The city and Washington Water Power Co. have teamed up to install more than 50 security lights in seven parks on both the North Side and South Hill.

The utility payments for the additional lighting will exceed $8,000 this year, said Taylor Bressler, parks maintenance manager.

That’s a small part of the department’s $10.7 million budget. But managers are concerned that if all 55 parks require lights, the budget impact could be significant.

“Traditionally Spokane parks are not lit except for the parking lot,” said Bressler. “Well, we’ve put in lights and now they want more lights. Some people would like to see the parks completely lit.”

The Parks Department is not necessarily opposed to that, but Bressler wants everyone to realize the cost, and what the impact may be on other programs, such as recreation or maintenance, which are paid for out of the same budget.

“This is not a huge deal, I’m just pointing out to the Park Board that there’s a trend out there that’s going to influence our budget.”

The lighting cost cited by Bressler doesn’t include lights used for softball fields or parking lots. Rather, they are security lights installed along corridors and areas where crime and vandalism could occur.

Some of them are quite effective at illumination. “I drove by Underhill Park the other night and I thought, ‘Oh, my god,’ we put up a Kmart,”said Bressler.

The impetus for park lights has come from neighborhood steering committee and the police department’s neighborhood resource officers, who are assigned to deal with concerns in specific neighborhoods. Volunteers who work in Spokane’s COPS substations have proven to be a potent lobbying force as well.

“Some neighborhoods have more clout than others, that’s one of the things we’re studying,” Bressler said.

The Parks Department wants to evaluate which parks need lights, and how such park decisions should be made.

Among those pushing for more park lighting is Debra Wittwer, president of the volunteer COPS organization in the NevadaLidgerwood Neighborhood.

“The lights are a tremendous help. They might think the bill’s not worth it but it is - we need more lights,” she said.

Hundreds of volunteers are patrolling alleys, painting over graffiti and making streets safer, Wittwer said, so a lot of the gang activity and drug deals has moved to parks.

Richards said it’s too early to say if additional security lighting in parks reduces crime. In fact, the lights may at first cause an increase in crime reporting because residents can see what’s occurring.

A greater issue in Spokane than crime, she said, is fear of crime. If lights make a neighborhood feel safer, that’s part of law enforcement’s job as well.

Richards said that the lights might make vandals and drug dealers move elsewhere, but there’s a value in that, as well.

“We’ll just keep moving them. I suspect they’ll get tired after awhile.”

Bressler said the community should look at every measure to make parks safer, not just lights. He said other cities leave parks dark but enforce curfews and make being in a park after closing a crime of trespassing.

Cheryl Steele, liaison between the neighborhood COPS substations and the Spokane police, said security lighting at A.M. Cannon Park has made a huge difference to people in the West Central neighborhood.

“Now if there’s noise, they can see if there’s trouble and know to call police right away,” she said.

But what also helped, Steele conceded, was when the Parks and Recreation Department agreed to turn on its sprinkling system at night instead of during the day, a measure that doesn’t cost a dime.

“That cleared it out real quickly,” she said.