Ald. Coggs seeks details and repair plans to address city’s streetlight outage problems

The Department of Public Works is being directed to share information about its hardest hit areas for streetlight outages, as well as detailed plans for how it will tackle the repairs needed to get the lights turned back on for local residents and businesses.

A Common Council communication file (Council File #231847) introduced by Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs and co-sponsored by Alderwoman Andrea M. Pratt and Alderman Mark Chambers, Jr., directs DPW to provide metrics on the most troublesome streetlight outage areas across the city (based on reports/complaints) and detailed plans on how it will be addressing those streetlight circuit and equipment problems in both the near and long term.

Alderwoman Coggs, chair of the Licenses Committee, notes that there is a disconnect with residents about the information they receive regarding infrastructure priorities, and it is a problem that must be addressed without delay.

“Last week residents heard about the sizable investment being allocated to help transform two miles of 6^th Street – which is great – yet they are living without adequate street lighting in their neighborhood just a few blocks away,” Alderwoman Coggs said. “We have residents who are experiencing an uptick in crime because the streetlights are out, and those outages stretch back for more than a year. It is just not acceptable and we need to know how DPW plans to address the issues.”

The communication file seeks details relating to the structure and age of the city’s street lighting system (specifics on which areas are oldest/most in need of updates and repairs), and which areas are seeing the most calls about outages.

Additionally, Alderwoman Coggs wants to ensure a plan is in place for additional dollars that may be coming to help address these types of issues. “Should additional funds to support streetlight replacement become available, we need to know that as a city we are ready to push those resources into the places with the most problematic circuits that experience the most outages. I look forward to discussing all of these topics publicly in the near future,” she said.

The file will be assigned to the Public Works Committee and a hearing scheduled for an upcoming meeting of the committee.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.