Dominic Massa / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS – Broken street lights are a common complaint in the city, from Algiers Point to New Orleans East. On Friday, city officials told City Council members at a Public Works Committee meeting that 10 percent of the city's 50,000 or so street lights are currently broken.
The figure raised concerns about the contract for replacing them, and communicating with city officials the updates on what's fixed and what's not.
“We can’t wait. People are tired of waiting. I know in my district they are,” said Jon Johnson, District E Councilman.
Several members of the Council criticized a process that's left neighborhoods in the dark and said that with crime a growing concern, dark streets are leading to bigger fears.
“With the streetlights being out it is making residents more scared, and it’s really at the point where people are very, very, very frustrated,” Johnson said.
District C Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer said that the issue came up at a community meeting Thursday in Algiers, near the scene of the tragic murder of Good Samaritan Mike Ainsworth on Wednesday.
Palmer and other Council members said they report broken lights that are called in to their offices, but can't track the progress of the city contractors hired to make the repairs.
“We're doing our job up here, in terms of trying to represent our constituents, and give the information. We at least demand and deserve a response that says ‘OK, this is major or we have fixed the bulb,” she said.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Mark Jernigan, the city’s Public Works Director, said repairs are prioritized based on public safety but admitted that the backlog will likely always be a factor. He seemed to say that communicating the city’s progress or lack thereof can be a challenge as well.
“We’re tracking over 4,700 street light outages citywide, so being able to provide status for a particular street light on a particular street is very challenging,” Jernigan said.
Council members also seemed surprised that there is only one crew out each night checking for outages.
“I hope it's more than one crew,” Johnson said, “If you’ve got one crew, it's going to take you from now until kingdom comes.”
City officials said they're working with the two contractors - Royal Engineering and All-Star Electric - to improve communication and possibly hire subcontractors, but they say there will likely always be a backlog.
After questioning from council members, Cedric Grant, the city’s Deputy Mayor of Facilities, Infrastructure and Community Development, said that the administration may explore the option of giving the job back to Entergy, which had it before the storm.
Council members said that at the very least the city administration needs to look at better ways to use the $3 million budgeted for street light repairs.
“We can’t continue to go to people and ask them to increase sanitation fees, to increase property taxes, possibly increase Sewerage & Water Board fees, and on and on, and continue to have people having the kind of problems that they’re having in the city today,” Johnson said.
The Public Works officials urged people to call 658-8080 to report broken street lights.
