Sanchez asks DOT about Hyland lighting contract and backlog
Sanchez raises her community board's letter about streetlights out for 9-12 months, false complaint closures, and daylight-only inspections under the Hyland contract. DOT says lighting is very much on its radar and it is expanding contract capacity. Abreu notes a future public realm hearing will cover streetlights.
And then my second question, and more to come on that because these areas are very dangerous.
Highland and the lighting contract, the DOT's lighting contracts.
I have before me a letter that
My community board number eight sent over to the controller, CC, the Bronx commissioner and other DOT staff on regarding lights that have been out for nine months, 10 months, a year at a time.
I also myself have reported lights around the Jerome Park Reservoir that have been out for months and months and months.
And we understand that the agency is not able to hold Highland accountable.
That is the interpretation we have in the community because...
Reports are made, if it's not the exact address, then the lighting complaints are closed, which is a false closure.
Inspections are only happening in the daylight.
How does the company know that the lights are still off?
And so much more.
So can you just give us an update on the status of your contract with Hyland?
How many light complaints are in the backlog?
And when can we expect to have our lights back in functioning order in our communities?
Because it's creating dangerous conditions.
I can say, you know, I'm not sure if we're equipped to address the specific contract today, but I can say, and I mentioned this, I think, earlier, you may have been out, lighting is something I've definitely heard a lot about in my time in this role.
And, you know, it's clear communities, it really affects people's day-to-day lives.
And I'll be honest, it's an area where we've had some challenges with, you know, as happens sometimes when you've got large operations.
In this case, you know, we're working to really expand our contract capacity and be able to be more nimble and address.
some of these lighting things quicker going forward.
So I guess my point is it's very much on my radar and our radar, and it's something we're really focused on.
Our street lighting division is actively working to kind of remediate some of these challenges.
You can ask a follow-up, yes.
Just very quickly, this letter was sent last week.
I hope that you all can send us a formal response.
It was sent on October 21st, and so I would really appreciate the specifics on when our lights are going to...
Yeah, happy to check with our traffic operations team and connect with you.
Thank you.
And Councilmember Sanchez, we are going to have a hearing in the new year on public realm and streetlights where we're going to go into the details on that even more.
As mentioned before, but Councilmember Ressler is an issue.
I just got an email from Councilor Marano about this.
It's an issue in every borough, and so we're going to take a close look at that.
Councilmember Wong, followed by Justin Sanchez.