East Sacramento streetlights left on at all hours. Who's footing the bill?
SACRAMENTO — People living in an East Sacramento neighborhood said blocks of street lights in the area of Elvas Avenue and Taylor Way have been on at all hours of the day and night for months.
We reached out to SMUD about the usage and was told the City of Sacramento operates that specific stretch of lights. When we reached out to city transportation officials, they could not explain why the lights were on during the day but said they would look into the issue.
The City of Sacramento operates 30,000 lights across the city but it's unclear how much an average lamp post takes to operate.
People who live in the area want to know who is footing the bill for the 24/7 street lights.
A longtime resident of the neighborhood, Kendra Harris, said she works for an environmental nonprofit and was disappointed to think about the overuse of electricity.
"This is definitely a waste of energy in high peak use times," Harris said. "I'm wondering who is footing the bill for that."
We also reached out to Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who oversees that area, to ask about the issue and what could be done to return the lamp posts to normal operating hours, we have not heard back yet from her office.
