We reported earlier this year on the big backlog at Seattle City Light – report a burned-out street light, wait weeks, maybe months, for it to get fixed. The mayor says he’ll take that on – news release ahead:
Mayor Greg Nickels announced today a proposal to allow Seattle
City Light to ramp up its street light repairs in 2009.“We are committed to replacing and fixing street light fixtures as a
matter of public safety and good customer service,” Nickels said.In April, City Light responded to the mayor’s call for no rate
increase in 2009 and to declining revenue from its surplus power sales
by cutting its 2009 operating and capital budgets. These cuts include
substantial restrictions in the use of overtime that result in longer
times to complete street light repairs and other services.The city’s general fund pays City Light more than $9 million annually
for the costs of building, operating, and maintaining streetlights. The
mayor is proposing that $2.1 million allocated in the 2009-2010 general
fund budget for street light repairs be spent earlier to speed up street
lamp replacement.Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chair of the Energy and Technology
Committee supports the plan. “Proper street lighting enhances the
safety and ambience of a thriving city and helps define its health,
culture and vibrancy. This change is a customer-focused approach that
provides cost-effective repair service to our valued residents and
businesses.”By accelerating its work and assigning more crews on regular time to
repair street lamps, the utility’s goal by the end of 2009 is to
respond to reported outages within 10 days. Once that standard is met,
City Light will be able to maintain a consistent level of street light
work through 2010. City Light also will proceed with the second phase of
its “group relamping” project, which replaces all the streetlights
in an area and puts streetlights on a scheduled, replacement program to
reduce outages.“The mayor’s action makes absolute sense and gives us a way to
improve our streetlight service immediately,” said City Light
Superintendent Jorge Carrasco.
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