Village manager outlines new streetlight charge; district parcels cited as examples
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Summary
Shorewood's village manager briefed the school board on a new ordinance establishing a streetlight charge that will appear as a line item on utility bills. The village estimates roughly $920,000 in 2025 revenue; district parcels (Atwater) were shown as examples of how charges will be calculated by linear feet.
Rebecca Ewell, Shorewood's village manager, told the Shorewood School Board the village recently passed Ordinance 30-71 to create a dedicated streetlight charge intended to cover the full operating cost of illuminating public streets.
Ewell said the fee will be assessed by “lineal feet of which the property is addressed,” and that the village's initial per-foot estimate of $5 will be refined to about $4.35 per linear foot. She described what the charge will cover — electricity, substation costs, lighting outage and repair, and replacement of outdated fixtures — and said the collections are restricted to streetlight operations only.
Using the district's Atwater parcel as an example, Ewell said GIS linear footage for that address is 586.8 feet, producing an estimated annual charge of about $850.90 for that parcel under the draft calculation. She added the village expects roughly $920,000 in revenue for the 2025 implementation year and that the new charge will first appear as line items on May, August and November utility bills this year.
Ewell also described related village planning: a multi‑phase streetlight replacement project (phase 1 estimated at about $2.3 million, funded with borrowed money and paired with other planned street reconstruction), an RFP for a mobile parking-payment system, and opportunities to repurpose recently vacated lower‑level village center space. She said the village will publish a GIS tool allowing residents to type their address and see the linear footage used to calculate the charge.
Board members asked how large properties and corner parcels will be charged; Ewell said each property will be charged based on the street to which it is addressed and acknowledged that parcel- and building-type complexities (condominiums, multiple tax key numbers) will require calibration in the GIS dataset. She emphasized that the village itself will pay the same charge as other properties and that energy-efficiency gains (LED retrofits) will reduce future charges when recalibrated.
What happens next: Ewell said the village will continue public communication in the coming weeks, provide an address‑lookup link, and follow its ordinance process for final implementation.
