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Ann Arbor's city staff snapped this photo in April 2012, showing how streetlight poles on Main Street are rusting on the inside. The poles are corroding under the decorative bases.

(City of Ann Arbor)

A proposal to replace the decorative streetlights along Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor has failed to win support from the City Council.

Council members voted 7-4 Monday night in favor of allocating the money for the project, which the mayor and others have called an urgent priority, but it failed because eight votes were needed for approval.

It's unclear how the light poles will be replaced now. City staff members have indicated the pedestrian-scale fixtures are rusting at the base, creating a safety hazard, and some have toppled already.

The total cost for the replacement of the 81 poles and the globular lights that sit atop them is estimated at $580,000, which was to be split between the city and the Downtown Development Authority.

The DDA previously agreed to contribute $300,000, and the City Council was being asked Monday night to budget the remaining $280,000 and approve a $173,307 contract with Spring City Electrical Manufacturing.

The four council members who voted against the allocation were Sumi Kailasapathy, Sally Hart Petersen, Stephen Kunselman and Mike Anglin.

"I expect the DDA to fulfill the whole cost since they have the money," Kunselman, D-3rd Ward, said of his reasons for voting no.

Kailasapathy, D-1st Ward, pressed DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay to acknowledge that $300,000 the DDA recently granted to Washtenaw County to help fund a downtown building renovation project could have gone toward the poles.

Internal rusting already caused two light poles on Main Street to topple from storm winds last year. Two others were preemptively replaced.

Pollay said that's technically true, but she also explained how the cost share was decided based on the City Council's direction.

During the city's budget deliberations earlier this spring, Pollay recalled, the City Council directed the DDA to put $300,000 in extra tax revenues toward affordable housing and to come up with $300,000 for the light pole project.

Mayor John Hieftje informed council members at the time that might leave around $200,000 coming from the city's general fund for the remainder of the costs.

Hieftje told council members Monday night they shouldn't have been surprised to see the funding request finally come forward.

Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward, called it a "self-inflicted wound" and blamed other council members for trying to tamper with the DDA's budget. He was the only one who voted against the directive to the DDA in May.

Pollay provided an update Monday night on where the DDA stands on possibly funding downtown beat cops, another request made by the City Council.

She said the DDA is exploring the alternative idea of downtown ambassadors, given that most of the concerns raised are related to nuisance issues like panhandling.

This coming week, members of the Ann Arbor DDA are planning to visit Grand Rapids to learn more about the ambassador program there.

Ryan Stanton covers Ann Arbor city hall for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com or 734-623-2529 or follow him on Twitter.