How many Somerville city workers does it take to change a light bulb?

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone, I really need your help to solve a simple problem!

About 3 months ago the overhead street light in front of my place burned out. I figured someone from the city's department of public works would come by at some point and fix it. After a few weeks when that did not happen I called the Somerville DPW and was told that the city's chief electrician was in charge of such problems. I was then connected to him. He informed me that he relays the info of burned out street light locations to someone at NSTAR and NSTAR would come and fix it.

Well it has been 3 months and I have called the Somerville DPW at least 6 times and all I get are excuses about NSTAR. I have called NSTAR directly but the people at NSTAR don't even know where to direct such inquires and they won't tell me who is in charge of such repairs. They simply take my name an number and NOTHING happens.

It is PITCH BLACK out in front of my place and I am concerned about break-ins and general safety.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to rattle the Somerville DPW or NSTAR in to fixing this SIMPLE light???

Thanks for any ideas!

Comments

[nathanjw]

It's almost certainly NStar's problem; the electric utilities started out as electric and light utilities, and have mostly kept that role in our area. However, NStar has a reputation for fixing lights very slowly, with a large number of total lights out in a given city (I think there was an article about this in Cambridge within the last year, in the Globe or the Chronicle, but I can't find it right now). Some cities are dealing with this problem by exercising provisions in a 1998 law to buy the lights back from NStar so they can maintain them themselves and fix streetlights more quickly.

So I think your options are:

(a) wait, because NStar doesn't care about you and doesn't have to;
(b) research city buybacks of lighting and lobby the mayor and your alderman on the subject.