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Columbia City Council Approves Downtown Camera and Lights Project

Meiying Wu
/
KBIA

Columbia City Council voted to move forward on downtown improvement projects at its meeting Monday.

Before the vote, the council held a public hearing on adding and updating of cameras situated in six downtown parking garages. The plan adds cameras in areas of the garages that were previously unmonitored and eliminates many older versions of the cameras. The project, which is scheduled to be completed in late spring or early summer, will cost nearly $250,000.

The six parking garages seeing the updates are at the following locations:

  • 10th and Cherry
  • 8th and Cherry
  • 6th and Cherry
  • Short Street
  • 8th and Walnut
  • 5th and Walnut

The second project voted on Monday recommended the replacement of 94 streetlights in downtown Columbia. Many of the lights have become mismatched in different styles, and some have seen their black paint chip away. The streetlights would also result in better brightening the sidewalks. Downtown Community Improvement District Executive Director Bob Hohenstein says that this would help to deter crime.
“If indeed enhanced lighting does not help mitigate and or prevent crime and problematic behavior,” Hohenstein said to the Council, “why do we, as residents, leave lights on in our house and have all kinds of exterior lighting around our homes?”

The streetlights would also come with a feature that would allow them to be dimmed or brightened if need be.

The downtown CID would provide $30,000 to help fund the $300,000 total that the streetlights would require. The rest will come from the Capital Improvement Program.