The cover of darkness will soon be lifted on a York City block prone to criminal activity.

A state grant worth $118,000 has been awarded for the installation of 11 street lights along the 200 block of South Pine Street, which should serve as both a crime deterrent and an aesthetic improvement to the Olde Towne East neighborhood, residents said Tuesday.

The decorative lights, illuminated with LED technology, have done wonders for earlier blocks of the 6-year-old project, said Gary Jones, who lives nearby.

"The nuisances - many of them have disappeared," he told the York City Council.

The area is so dark between East Princess and East Prospect streets, resident Marie Rohleder said, that she was recently spooked while taking an evening walk.

"A woman sitting on her stoop scared me," she said.

The state Department of Economic and Community Development grant is being funneled to the neighborhood through the York YWCA. The city will put the project out to bid, Public Works Director Jim Gross said.

East-end neighborhood activists are always looking for grant money, Jones said. As it becomes available, other blocks targeted for street lights include Poplar, King and Market streets and Reinecke Place, he said.

- Reach Erin James at 505-5439 or ejames@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter @ydcity.