Message from Councilor Benton about Lighting Residential Streets

My office often receives requests to install lighting on residential streets.  Unfortunately, on residential streets the City cannot afford to fund pedestrian scale streetlights (as opposed to the standard street lights seen at intersections).  Arterial corridors, special and multipurpose collector streets like Mountain Road, and designated urban centers are instead the focus of  the City’s spending on pedestrian/security lighting projects.  The rationale is that these serve larger numbers of residents per dollar spent.

Because of these budgetary restraints, for security, we must depend upon residents to light their own street frontage. In my opinion, this is best done using inexpensive residential yard pole lights (which used to be more common) and other landscape lights, with buried power cable.  Lights blasting out into the darkness from a “security” fixture on the wall of a house is less pleasing to the eye.  If as a block you were so inclined, these fixtures could be bid competitively, collectively purchased, and installed by small electricians; you would get better pricing. 

Also unfortunately, some street lights belong to PNM and some to the City, creating confusion as to maintenance and replacement.  Many street lights are thus out of service on any given night, and residents should call the number below to report any outage. Get the number of the fixture from the pole if possible, and when calling, always get a tracking number. Save the number and notify my office if action is not taken.

To report an out of service light:
(888) DIAL-PNM (1-888-342-5766)
Best time to call: Tues. - Thurs. 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.