Streetlights that are out in downtown Jackson pose a dilemma about who owns them.
Does Entergy own the streetlights, or do they belong to the city of Jackson?
“At some point in its history, the city decided to do its own streetlights,” said Dallas Quinn, director of public affairs for Downtown Jackson Partners.
“You look back and nobody (with the city) was changing the bulbs or ballasts. Entergy would fix their lights and the city didn’t.”
Quinn said streets such as Pearl and Pascagoula need immediate repairs to their streetlights. “Those are out, and we think it’s from an electrical problem,” he said.
It’s not always easy to troubleshoot issues with streetlights downtown because the electrical power lines are buried underground, he said.
Entergy maintains about 22,000 municipal streetlights within the city of Jackson, said Leyla Stamey Goodsell, a spokesperson for Entergy.
Entergy is working with the city to identify and distinguish the lights the city owns, and those Entergy owns and how Entergy can assist the city with streetlight concerns, she said.
One solution may be replacing the streetlights the city owns with Entergy-owned lighting, Goodsell said.
Maintenance of any other, non-Entergy streetlights in the community is the responsibility of the municipalities or state agencies that own them,” she said.
“When a customer initiates or adds municipal streetlights to their accounts, our lighting team works with the customer to ensure the lights are placed appropriately and the customer understands the charges associated with the lights,” Goodsell said.
Entergy Mississippi patrols primary thoroughfares to identify and repair outages for the municipal streetlights it maintains and relies on and encourages the community to also report streetlight outages, Goodsell said.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn, who has met with Entergy officials about the nonworking streetlights, said at the Feb. 24 council meeting that the city could be overpaying Entergy, depending upon the number of lights that are out.
Streetlights are not connected to meters, and the city pays a monthly fee to Entergy regardless of whether the lights work or not, he said.
Goodsell said each municipal streetlight is charged, even if the light is not working.
The best way to report an outage is through the Entergy mobile app, which allows one to click on the specific streetlight maintained by Entergy and report the outage, she said. Streetlight outages can also be reported via the Entergy website or by calling Entergy at 1-800-9OUTAGE.
Once reported, repairs are typically made within three working days, she said.
Municipal streetlights that are not maintained by Entergy Mississippi, as well as Entergy-leased private area lights, do not appear on the app or website, Goodsell said.
At some point, a lighting audit by a private company could be helpful in determining where there are dark areas downtown that need lighting, Quinn said.
