WHEELING — Officials in the city of Wheeling are seeking help to identify street lights in the city that are out so they can be reported to AEP and fixed.

Some members of Wheeling City Council recently noted that some sections of streets are becoming dark because a number of street lights are out. The routine has been to report pole numbers or locations to AEP so they can send crews to repair them, but in some areas, it has become too much of a burden to chase down pole numbers at multiple sites.

Councilman Ben Seidler said that on Wheeling Island, there are several problem light poles.

“I know on the Island, one of the frustrating things — and we’ve been trying to work with AEP on this — is that we have so many lights out over there,” Seidler said. “It’s really difficult to just get the pole numbers.”

Seidler requested that City Manager Robert Herron request that AEP send a crew to Wheeling to take inventory on all of the street lights that are currently out. He also asked about the possibility that the lights be upgraded to LED lights, as well.

Herron indicated that the switch to LED lights may be inevitable, although the upgrade may be expensive.

“I have a meeting with AEP’s regional manager,” Herron said, noting that the session is slated for the first week of June. “That is going to be a topic of discussion, because we are converting high-pressure sodium lights that were in the downtown to LED lights. We’ve had some issues in Warwood where street lights have been out, and they’ve gone up and replaced them with LEDs. Which is fine with the exception that the tariff to the city on an LED light is actually three times that of a high-pressure sodium light. So we’ve got to figure that out from a budgetary perspective.”

Herron added that it is apparently becoming more difficult to replace the lights with the current style of street lamp.

“AEP is telling us that they’re struggling to get parts for these high-pressure sodium lights, and they’re automatically converting them to LED,” he said. “So we’re going to have a conversation as to what their program is in replacing lights that are out, because the city of Wheeling pays for a street light whether it’s on or not. And if they’re not going to aggressively turn them back on or fix them, then they need to figure out a way to replace them entirely, and we need to be able to know what’s going on and what budget impact that’s going to have.”

In addition to the lights that are out, there are also several old lights that are dim and do not properly illuminate the streets, Seidler noted.

“We have a lot of them that are out, and we need to put the burden back on (AEP) to manage that themselves. In Fulton, we’ve got a lot of dark, dingy lights there as well.”

Herron explained that the burden is on AEP to replace the lights, but they do rely on citizens and the city to identify which ones are in need of being replaced.

“We definitely don’t mind helping, but we’re past that,” Seidler said. “There’s too many for us to handle.”

Councilman Tony Assaro said this has been a problem in his Ward 1 neighborhoods, as well.

“We’ve mentioned that on River Road between Warwood and North Wheeling, there are many lights out there,” Assaro said. “Now I’ll normally get out of the car to get pole numbers and get it to them, but it’s too dangerous at night to go do that at that location. So if they could, perhaps, get someone to drive up and take a look at those lights, that would be helpful.”

Erikka Storch, external affairs manager for Appalachian Power, an AEP company, said they have been made aware of a number of light pole issues and are working to remedy the problem.

“We have had some back orders and delays because of weather, as well, but we have been working on them,” Storch said.

Citizens can call AEP to inform them of light poles that are out in their neighborhood, or citizens can go to the company’s website and report them.

“We are aware that there are vegetation issues and other issues that make it hard to get to some of the poles,” Storch said. “But people can let us know either the pole number or the closest address, and we can identify the pole that has the street light that needs to be fixed.”