Driving down Alice streets at night and you’ll see a few street lights out, all thanks to a new initiative by the Alice Police Department set to lighting up our neighborhoods.
Alice Police Chief Eden Garcia said there’s a way for neighbors to help light up the roadways through the newest initiative.
"As you travel through our neighborhoods, you have a lot of areas that are dark. And you look up and there's street lights. And they're not activated or they're burned out. They're old,” Garcia said.
He said poorly lit areas can lead to traffic accidents involving pedestrians and burglaries.
"It started with an accident, a pedestrian accident, a car hit an elderly lady crossing the street and it was dark. And I knew we could do better. And I knew we could do more,” Garcia said.
He said no one should be involved in an accident because there’s little to no light on a street. And so, the “Light Up the Community” initiative started.
"That would be great because then we'd be able to see,” long-time Alice resident Sherry Peterson said.
Sherry Peterson said she hears racers down her street and knows that neighbors have been dealing with thefts. Something she attributes to the poor light.
“(AEP) came and replaced the pole at the end of our driveway on our little one-block street. The lights dimmer than ever and all they did was replace the pole because they said nobody had put an order in for a new light,” she said.
Peterson said that light is about 50 years old and barely lights up.
She didn’t know you could report a street light by calling the electric company or on their website.
“There are numbers on light poles. Identifying that particular light. You go in there and put that number on the AEP website of that light pole,” Garcia said. "They'll replace the old lighting with LED lighting so it'll be brighter. Hopefully, we can get everybody aboard so we can get everybody to help us and to do it. To take those steps that are necessary to ensure everybody's safety."
Alice Police Officers are out searching for lights that need to be worked on and reporting them. Garcia said our neighbors should also report the lights because working street lights will make a difference by simply lighting up the community.
Alice Police Chief Garcia said there are more initiatives to come.
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