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Most of Tinian street lights kept off
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Posted on Nov 06 2006
Eight of every 10 streetlights on Tinian are kept off at night, as part of the municipal government’s cost-cutting efforts.
Tinian Mayor Jose P. San Nicolas reported that only 174 of the 1,000 streetlights in the island are currently being used at night.
The Tinian government began cutting the island’s street light usage in view of the government’s new budget, which requires government agencies to pay for their own utility costs.
Tinian’s budget for fiscal year 2007 amounts to $11.06 million, a decrease of nearly $2.5 million compared with the municipality’s last enacted allocation. Nearly $1 million of Tinian’s current budget is earmarked for utility expenses.
“With the reduction in revenues and appropriations and the added responsibility of paying for the cost of operating streetlights on Tinian, the municipality began implementing cost cutting measures by reducing the number of lighted street lights in Tinian,” San Nicolas said in a public notice. “As a result, out of 1,000 streetlights in the municipality, only 174 streetlights are currently being utilized at night.”
However, the mayor said, the cost cutting measure has began to show at least one downside: “Tinian pedestrians on streets, residential areas, and on the beaches have endured countless attacks by stray dogs.”
For this reason, the Tinian government has adopted an emergency stray dog regulation that expands and puts more teeth to the existing one.
The new regulation mandates the Tinian Mayor’s Office and the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to put up a shelter for stray dogs.
The regulation also establishes procedure for the licensing, impoundment and, if necessary, humane disposal of dogs.
The emergency regulation will remain in effect for 120 days. Interested parties may obtain a copy of the regulation from, and submit comments to, the Tinian Mayor’s Office.
