Street lighting is provided on all publicly maintained streets. The standard street light used by the City is the enclosed or “cobra” type that is attached by an “arm” to a wooden or fiberglass pole. This fixture is designed to concentrate the light on to the right of way.
Currently, the City leases over 7,900 streetlights from Progress Energy Company (PEC). More are added each year due to the construction of new subdivisions, citizen and police requests, and as a result of annexation. In addition to leasing streetlights, we own, operate, and maintain 426 ornamental fixtures located in the historic downtown area and along Market Street. The operational budget for the 02/03 fiscal year is 1.2 million dollars.
As part of the development process, the program manager reviews and/or prepares the lighting plans for all new subdivisions, which is then coordinated with PEC. Additional streetlights along existing publicly maintained streets may be installed at the request of citizens or the police.
Neighborhoods with incorporated homeowners’ associations (HOA) have the option of selecting nonstandard or ornamental fixtures for their subdivision. The HOA enters into agreements with PEC and the City. The agreement with PEC provides the fixtures, posts, and the power at a monthly cost. As part of the agreement with the City, the HOA bears all costs for the street lighting in the subdivision. The City reimburses the HOA on a quarterly basis for the cost of providing the standard lights that would typically be installed.
How to request the installation of a streetlight:
Contact Karen Carter Dixon at 341-7893.
How to report a streetlight that is out or going off and on:
IMPORTANT: PEC maintains the streetlights we lease from them. On each streetlight pole, there should be attached a yellow metal tag that displays a mix of letters and numbers. PEC needs this identification number when reporting the outage, so please jot it down or memorize it.
The outage can be reported directly to PEC at 1-800-452-2777 or contact Karen Carter Dixon at 341-7893. The streetlight should be repaired within three business days.