(Spirit Lake)– Portions of Spirit Lake are about to get darker at night.
The city council Tuesday accepted a recommendation from city staff to turn off 206 street lights in various portions of the city in a cost and energy-saving move.
The lights to be turned off are in sparsely populated areas and those yet to be developed.
Many of the lights were just installed within the last year or two, including 38 street lights along Highway Nine on the city’s west side that will be turned off.
15 lights along Highway 71 south between 36th Street and Stakeout Road will also be shut off.
That’s in addition to 26 lights along Sunner Avenue; 11 on 41st Street between Highway 71 and Sunner Avenue; 13 lights will be turned off in Southern Hills Phase Two; 11 in the Pointe of Pines area; 11 in the Sundland Addition north of 28th Street; seven lights will be shut off on the south side of 28th Street starting in the 1600 block west to Zenith Avenue; nine street lights will be turned off on Peoria Avenue between 15th Street and Highways nine and 71; 11 lights along Lake Street between Peoria and Memphis Avenues will go dark; 26 lights will be shut off in the Country Estates area; 13 in the Southern Glen area; and 15 lights will be turned off on Hill Avenue north from Sixth Street to the pump house.
City officials say turning off those lights will save the city more than six thousand dollars a year on its electricity bill.
They say some of the lights may be turned back on when development progresses.
City Administrator Mark Stevens says the lights will go out over the next week or two as city crews make the rounds loosening bulbs.
