After the city council tried to split the cost of green light traffic signal technology with an independent fire insurance board, the lights will “most likely” not go up before Christmas, according to Fire Chief Barry Helmerichs.
In November, Helmerichs asked the city council for $105,000 to install GPS-based units at 16 intersections along the Veterans Parkway corridor, starting at Wabash Avenue heading south. Helmerichs asked for a supplemental appropriation in order to get the technology in place before the retail-heavy area was inundated with drivers. Though there wasn’t a high volume of calls from the area, it took firefighters twice the average time to respond, Helmerichs told the council.