WILTON — Residents voted 81 to 70 by paper ballot on Monday night to keep the lights on in Wilton.

An proposed amendment during the annual town meeting to bring the suggested $32,900 budget amount for street lights back up to $52,000 was followed by citizens voicing their feelings for safety over the extra money spent on the town’s 315 street lights.

Last year the town budgeted $51,197 for streetlights and in an effort to conserve, a street light committee has worked since last December to determine areas for potential savings. After originally posting 204 streetlights to be shut off, the committee listened to resident concerns and went back and decided to keep 46 of those 204 lights on, Town Manager Rhonda Irish told the residents.

Safety was the main reason for the majority of residents to want to keep all the lights on but some realized the need for savings not only this year but next year.

“We tried to hold the line (on the budget),” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Terry Brann. “It may be more difficult next year.”

In other business, voters also approved allowing town officials to enter into an agreement with Dixfield to pay half the cost on the purchase of a firetruck to be housed at the East Wilton Fire Department to replace a 30-year-old truck.

The article asked voters to approve Wilton’s share that is not to exceed $100,000.

Voters approved the article with no discussion.

The majority of those present also showed their support for the town’s Police Department after one taxpayer (who didn’t want to identify himself) moved to amend the requested budgeted amount of $371,785 down to $361,000.

His reasoning centered on grants the police department has received but can’t count on continuing and questions of a new program that the department adopted that attempts to put a police cruiser on every street within a 36-hour period.

The plan developed after a request from residents to see a cruiser on less traveled roads, Chief Dennis Brown explained.

“The department is fairly busy for a community this size,” he said.

A domestic violence grant has helped fund a full-time officer for investigations of domestic, sexual and family violence. The town had 10 rapes last year and seven already this year, Brown said. The grant funds also provides training and equipment including a $7,000 camera for the cruiser to tape domestic complaints, something that the town couldn’t afford otherwise, he explained.

The amount budgeted for the department is about $5,000 over what the town approved for a budget three or four years ago, Brown said. It includes cost-of-living and insurance increases for members of the department and the cost of one officer going to the police academy this year.

One resident voiced her compliments for the “tight ship” run by Brown and Lt. Page Reynolds.

Voters turned down the amendment and without further discussion, endorsed the budget.

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