Residents of the Eisenhower Park neighborhood are asking Warsaw city officials to help them feel safer by adding some street lighting.

A small group of people representing the neighborhood asked the Warsaw Common Council Monday night to install street lighting as a deterrent to recent break-ins and to ease safety concerns.

Pat Hygema is the president of the Eisenhower Neighborhood Association and noted, “The streets are very dark at night,” she said, “we have 39 kids in the neighborhood and safety is a concern.”

City planner Jeremy Skinner said the estimated cost to install three to four single-bulb decorative light poles would cost the city approximately $20,000 to $25,000. “It’s obviously something we’re going to have to work into the budget,” said mayor Joe Thallemer.

It was noted that all houses in the neighborhood have outdoor lighting, but most are placed so close to the homes that they do not light the streets. Additionally, Hygema said many of the lights do not work and the ones that do, the residents do not want to pay the electric bill to leave them on.

Hygema and her neighbors present for the meeting agreed that they were not concerned with the “decorative” nature of street lights, they just want lights. “We want safety,” she said. “We’re not picky and don’t care if they’re pretty or not.”

Thallemer said that while the council would not rule out the lighting project for this year, Skinner said it would likely be in the spring of 2015 before all the ground work could be completed for installation.