TAMPA - Don't take the decision by a Cross Creek homeowners association to turn on street lights along a mile of Cross Creek Boulevard as a compromise in its feud with Hillsborough County over who should pay the electric bill. 

After three nights of darkness, the Cross Creek II Master Association voted Thursday night to switch on the lights for 90 days - but only as a courtesy, said Craig Lewis, the board's treasurer.

"We hope the county fulfills its responsibility and pays for the lights," Lewis said. "If it hasn't by October, the lights go back off, and we're not turning them on again."

For the past five years, the association, which represents 1,065 homeowners, has paid about $1,800 a month for the 53 street lights along Cross Creek Boulevard in a contract with Tampa Electric.

But, Cross Creek board members say, they had always been told that once the road had been built out, other communities would pitch in for the electricity.

When Tampa extended the boulevard to Morris Bridge Road last year, the street became a major route for motorists, luring more than 24,000 a day, according to a city traffic study.

Establishing a means for other communities to help pay for the street lights has been difficult.

The other communities along the road were all annexed into Tampa. In 1995, the county told Cross Creek's developer, Ed Andrews, that a taxing district could not be established that would allow communities such as Arbor Greene, Hunter's Green, Heritage Isles and Cory Lakes Isles to help pay because they were in a separate municipality.

Because the road is public property, it couldn't be taxed by a community development district either. So the only way to pay for the street lights was with fees by the Cross Creek II Master Association.

Lewis, the Cross Creek board's treasurer, said that for months the county wouldn't listen to the board's concerns, and the last straw was when the county told the board that it would take a year to study the issue. So on July 7, when the contract with Tampa Electric expired, the board voted not to renew it.

Tampa Electric turned off the lights Tuesday night.

"Is anybody looking out for us out here?" Lewis said. "We feel like a stepchild. We did this to get their attention. We wanted to jolt them."

Did they?

"Unquestionably, they got our attention," said County Commissioner Ken Hagan. "I've seen to it that the county administrator on down is aware of this problem."

Commissioners are scheduled to discuss it at their Aug. 6 meeting. Hagan said a staff recommendation for commissioners to consider should be ready by October.

"I'm very encouraged," said Hagan, who lives in Cross Creek. "This was a good faith effort on the association's part to give the county time to find a solution."