Bugged by burned-out bulbs

As if TECO Energy Inc. doesn't have enough problems, what with its shrunken stock price and uncertain investments in out-of-state power plants, the Tampa utility is taking some static for burned-out street lamps in its hometown.

"As soon as you go off daylight savings time, everybody notices the (street) lights that aren't working," says Samuel Halter, chief administrative officer for the city of Tampa. "This year it seemed more than ever that lights were out. . . . It's the worst I've ever seen."

TECO's Tampa Electric Co. subsidiary, which is responsible for maintaining the city's streetlights, is in the process of replacing about 1,700 burned-out bulbs in Tampa and other parts of its service territory, which includes Hillsborough County and parts of Pasco, Polk and Pinellas counties.

But Tampa Electric spokesman Ross Bannister argues that there hasn't been an appreciable uptick in dark streetlights over previous years and that the lights that are out represent a small portion of the roughly 200,000 the company is responsible for. He says awareness of streetlights may have been heightened after Tampa Mayor Dick Greco announced last month that the city will soon start outfitting about 1,300 streetlights with new bulbs that are two to three times brighter.

Nonetheless, Bannister acknowledges, the Tampa utility has stepped up efforts to tend to streetlight outages in hopes of having all burned-out bulbs replaced by the end of the year.

If the city of Tampa is concerned about streetlight outages, it might try doing a better job of tracking them, judging from a recent report by the city's internal audit department. It found the public works department failed to keep proper documentation on 19 streetlight repair requests out of 25 sample requests examined in July.

"Obviously it doesn't help if we're not able to do an aggressive policing job," Halter says.

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