New lights under I-90 overpass proposed to combat crime near Lewis and Clark High School

Spokane is hoping to shine more light under the Interstate 90 overpass near Lewis and Clark High School in an attempt to deter a growing crime problem.

“The safety of students is of paramount importance, and that area wasn’t safe,” said City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear. “It was a dark hole.”

The City Council will vote Monday afternoon whether to accept a bid from North Coast Electric Co. to buy 50 programmable LED fixtures that would be installed under the highway between Wall and Bernard streets. The lights would be installed before the start of the next school year, and the city and school are hoping they will have the same effect a similar project had in the East Sprague district over the past two years, where new lighting led to a 30 percent reduction in crime, according to the Spokane Police Department.

The projected cost of the project is $30,543.

“We’re hoping to make this a less attractive place to overnight,” said Marybeth Smith, principal of Lewis and Clark. “That might address some of the issues we’ve had.”

Smith took the school’s concerns to a meeting between city staff, elected officials and police facilitated by City Hall’s Neighborhood Services Department. The principal told the group that two teachers were mugged and four students assaulted during the school year, and the school has seen an increase in vehicle prowling.

“It’s escalated a lot in the past couple, three years,” said Smith, who recently returned to the high school on the southern edge of downtown after four years away.

Money for the new lights will come out of existing accounts for the purchase of utilities and lighting features in the city’s budget. If more funding is found, the city will buy additional lights to stretch to other areas of the underpass.

The area beneath the freeway, which is owned by the Department of Transportation, has seen increased attention in recent years following the removal of a popular skate park and a request from the city for the nonprofit Blessings Under the Bridge to move their weekly meal service. The first phase of light installation would not extend to Fourth Avenue and McClellan Street, the intersection where Blessings serves.

Skateboarders performing tricks near some benches outside of Lewis and Clark on Wednesday afternoon expressed approval for the idea of lighting the area, but they were shooed away by a school resource officer for skating in an unauthorized area.

The East Sprague lighting project was first mentioned in 2014, part of a collaboration between the neighborhood, business owners, the Spokane Regional Health District and Spokane Police Department. Spokane Police Capt. Dave Richards told the City Council in January the program, which installed nearly 200 new lights in a section of the industrialized neighborhood, had led to property owners reporting feeling safer walking the streets in the evening, in addition to lowering crime.

If the contract is approved, city crews will install the new lights this summer in time for classes commencing in the fall.