Residents Submit Petition For Community Street Lights

SALISBURY – An effort to install street lighting in two Salisbury subdivisions will move forward with preliminary engineering studies.

In an Urban Services Commission portion of a Wicomico County Council meeting Tuesday, officials agreed to initiate street lighting efforts in the Kelvington and Hearn & Bailey subdivisions off Jersey Road.

Dallas Baker, director of the county’s public works department, said residents in both subdivisions have submitted a petition to the public works department requesting street lights in both communities.

“We received a petition from the two subdivisions, Kelvington and Hearn & Bailey Farm, for street lighting in their area,” he said. “Per the code we have to have at least 20 property owners or 25 percent of the subdivision sign the petition for street lighting in order to get it forwarded to the commission. We compared the signatures on the petition to land records and confirm that both subdivisions met the requirements.”

According to documents submitted by the public works department, 7 of the 12 property owners in Kelvington and 51 of the 194 property owners in Hearn & Bailey Farm signed the petition. An additional 32 signatures were from residents who were not property owners.

“Now it comes to the commission for your approval,” Baker said. “Then we will move forward with preliminary engineering studies to determine costs and potential locations.”

The commission voted 6-0, with Councilman Matt Holloway absent, to approve the residents’ request and move forward with preliminary engineering studies.

Baker said he will approach both Delmarva Power and Choptank Electric to determine the costs of providing street lighting to the communities.

“I believe we have to get the cost estimates together,” he said. “Once we have the costs and locations then we have the public hearing to present the findings to everybody.”

Baker said the public works department will return to the commission for final approval before moving forward with any installation.

About The Author: Bethany Hooper

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Bethany Hooper has been with The Dispatch since 2016. She currently covers various general stories. Hooper graduated from Stephen Decatur High School in 2012 and the University of Maryland in 2016, where she completed double majors in journalism and economics.