Geddes Supervisor Manny Falcone said the board decided last week to save the nearly $25,000 a year it costs the town to illuminate that stretch of interstate highway.
Geddes, NY -- Onondaga County is pulling the plug on sales tax revenue for Geddes, so the town’s pulling the plug on highway lighting along I-690 west of the Syracuse city line.
Geddes Supervisor Manny Falcone said the board decided last week to save the nearly $25,000 a year it costs the town to illuminate that stretch of interstate highway. He said under the terms of a 10-year agreement with the state Department of Transportation, the town pays Solvay Electric — the Solvay village electric department — for electricity and maintenance of the lights.
That agreement ends on June 30, Falcone said. After that date, the lights will go out.
A new 10-year sales tax agreement adopted by the county cuts the taxes given to towns, villages and school districts from about $87 million this year to $8 million three years from now.
Geddes — which received $2.9 million — is the only town in the county to use 100 percent of its sales tax money to fund town operations. By 2013, it will get zero.
Geddes, Solvay and the state have had a running squabble regarding the lights since the 1970s.
The state says maintenance of the lights along the interstate is the responsibility of local municipalities. That policy started just after World War II.
Ten years ago, the state and Geddes were at loggerheads after the state said it would install new, high-mast poles and improved lighting fixtures as long as the town paid for electricity and maintenance.
The catch was town taxpayers would have to pay to remove the old poles, at an estimated cost of more than $100,000. The town covered that cost with state grant money.
Contact John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or at 251-5718.