Because Sunrise is a state road and the repair is major -- new wiring and light poles -- state approval is necessary. The village submitted the plan to the state in 2006.
"This is bureaucratic red tape at its thickest and longest," Village Clerk Bob Barra, a former assemblyman, said last week.
The darkness is acute near Green Acres Mall, leaving the impression that more lights are out than on. "It's just overwhelming how many are missing," Chris Csuti told Watchdog. From his commute on the train, which runs along the road, Csuti said he could identify 37 spots where lights should be shining but aren't.
Csuti echoed a common refrain: Who's responsible for streetlights?
The answer dates to the 1980s, Fare said, when the village got a letter from LILCO, LIPA's predecessor, saying the utility was handing street lighting over to local governments.
"And for a while the lights worked because wiring underneath was OK," he said, but over time both wiring and poles have rotted. The village hasn't been allowed to rewire the existing structures in the interim, he said.
Fare said he is hopeful that, after cycles of "notes and critiques" from the state, approval is near. It could be as close as a matter of weeks, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Eileen Peters said last week. Once the state receives one more round of revisions to accommodate safety improvements planned for ramps at Hicks Street and South Central Avenue, final approval should take about eight more weeks, she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment