(Cordova, TN) Hundreds of Cordova residents are without street lights after they were annexed by Memphis, but they still have to pay for them.
“Any Cordova resident who is paying for street lights through their light gas and water bill, and they don’t have street lights. That is simply wrong. We’ve got to correct this,” said Memphis City Councilman Myron Lowery.
Lowery says a plan on the table would do just that.
Tuesday Memphis City Council members will consider Councilman Bill Boyd’s ordinance to let people who live parts of Cordova that have been annexed by the city opt out of paying for street lights.
“That will be great. I think that’s a fair deal for everybody,” said Cordova resident Marcus Brown.
Right now people like Brown are paying for the service and want the lights, even though they’ve never been put up.
“Security, of course visibility because you have a lot of deer and stuff running across the street so I think it will be a safety thing for a lot of people,” said Brown.
Each house in the city pays $4.32 per month for street lights.
The fee can go up to over $19 a month for large businesses.
When the city annexed this area of Cordova more than 1,700 people started paying those fees bringing big bucks into the city, but leaving these people in the dark.
“I think it is robbery to bill us from MLGW for streetlights we don’t have and haven’t had until they annexed us,” said Cordova resident Anita Price.
If the ordinance passes, these people won’t have to pay the light fee until they get street lights.
“It’s not fair to bill someone for street lights if they don’t have street lights. Residents of Cordova are suffering right now and they shouldn’t have to pay this fee and it should be taken off their bill,” said Lowery.
Councilman Bill Boyd is sponsoring this ordinance and says the lights will be installed in South Cordova no later than 2015.
When they are installed the street lights will be the new LED lights required under the law.
Councilman Lowery also wants Harbor Town to be exempted from the light fee because he says right now people on Mud Island are paying twice because they already pay for lights to the neighborhood association.
