Ledger Inquirer: It's dark these days down by the RiverWalk
Nov 19, 2012 (Menafn - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Let there be light.
A Concerned Runner we'll call "Jim" (because that's his name) was running on the RiverWalk recently when it got to be dark ... really, really dark. Running at dusk along the stretch near Golden Park and the Civic Center, Jim realized there were very few of the streetlights along that stretch that were working.
It got to be so dark, in fact, that he heard another runner go by, but didn't see him, or her.
It was pitch black, Jim said.
Well I went down there at dusk one afternoon last week, just as the lights were beginning to come on. Sure enough, there was a stretch of lights that were out ... including two that are supposed to illuminate a long stairway going from a plaza beside Golden Park down to the RiverWalk.
I didn't hang around to verify the pitch-blackness, because apparently I'm smarter than Jim.
But as ill-advised as nighttime runs are on the RiverWalk, if we're going to have streetlights there, we might as well put bulbs in them.
As we've learned through the years at Inquirer Central, Georgia Power takes care of most of the street lights in the city, including the RiverWalk. You may recall last year, the power company took care of a couple of Inquirer problems, in the 11th Street rail underpass and along the sewage treatment plant road on the south side.
As I did in those cases, I called Robert Watkins at Georgia Power. He said he would send someone to check on it, but noted that some lights along the RiverWalk are out because of some work the city is doing, and the power company has to wait until they're done before those lights can be restored.
He also reminded us that they're a little short-handed these days because they're helping out up north in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
"But thanks for bringing it to our attention," Watkins said.
You're welcome. I'll thank Jim, too, and also advise him not to run on the RiverWalk at night for a while. But he's from Louisiana, so you just never know what he might do.
Update
Myles Caggins, the Muscogee County School District's chief operations and facilities officer, doesn't play. I called him recently to tell him about a dangerous dead pine that was dropping limbs on a sidewalk on the grounds of Arnold Magnet Academy.
That was Friday before last. The next Monday was Veterans Day, so school was out and all the tree cutters were off, apparently. But Tuesday morning, there was a crew on the scene and the dangerous pine was on the ground, being cut up and hauled off.
-- Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.
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