The cardboard sign attached to the cast iron streetlight pole in front of Janet and Rick Merideths’ Merriman Hills home says it has been out since 2023. The couple, who’ve lived on Palisades Drive for about six years, said they’ve been bounced around between the City of Akron’s 311 service line and Ohio Edison over who is responsible for fixing it.
“I’ve called 311 several times,” Rick Merideth said. “Three years ago, two years ago, then they said it was [Ohio] Edison. … I called them, then they said it was city services.”
“So, nothing’s been done.”
Tuesday evening, they attended a neighborhood meeting to hear updates from FirstEnergy representatives and Akron’s director of public service, Chris Ludle.
The Merideths and other residents sat in lawn chairs gathered around two picnic tables at Canyon Trail Park as some residents stood in the back of the group or near a fence. Residents voiced their concerns and asked questions related to unresolved streetlight outages and frequent power outages in the Merriman Hills neighborhood.
Questions from residents ranged from possible assessment reimbursements to the root of the outage issues.
The neighborhood meeting was organized by Ward 1 City Council Member Fran Wilson and the Canyon Trail Park Collective.
Amy Hopkins, FirstEnergy’s local engagement specialist for reliability and asset management, provided an update, saying neighbors would soon see crews repairing what are called underground faults. These breaks or cuts in the underground wiring for the streetlights are caused by lead service pipe removals, construction, tree planting or other digging. The streetlights remain out because the faults were not flagged for repair, Hopkins said.
She said specifically that there are underground faults in the area on Merriman Road, Palisades Drive and Malvern Road.
Residents of Merriman Hills should see underground faults repaired in the next 30 days by Thompson Electric, Hopkins said, beginning Oct. 26. Streetlight repairs should begin within the next week.
Thompson will also begin fixing and putting in new lines for streetlights to get them working again.
“It does take a little bit of time — not a whole year,” Hopkins said about delays in repairs. “I understand that, but it has taken us some time. We have a backlog. We have gotten behind.”
Hopkins also said that streetlights aren’t only affected by underground faults but that the heads could be broken. Starting on Oct. 24, a crew will begin replacing streetlight “acorn” heads, or lanterns. Crews will also begin installing LED streetlights.
Wilson moderated the residents’ questions during the meeting. The following questions and responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did the state of repairs get to this point with so many streetlights out? Once they’re fixed, what about the long term?
Hopkins: I don’t know how necessarily we got here. I can tell you that we’ve had 28 major storms this year that have taken us away from that. I don’t want to make excuses for you at all, but I can tell you how we’re moving forward with this. We do have a three-year rate plan that we have proposed to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, and with that plan, we are asking for more funds so we can continue to make better upgrades to the community, to streetlights and reliability.
When will all of the streetlight work be completed?
Hopkins: My understanding is that Thompson Electric has committed to being completed in 30 days. They are only fixing the underground faults.
Heads that need to be replaced because the bulbs have gone out — anything else that needs to be repaired on that, that will be on our guys [FirstEnergy]. Like I explained in the very beginning, we are working through this backlog, and by doing that, we are bringing extra crews in to begin to work, and they are going to definitely work through these backlogs.
I don’t know how long the backlog process is going to take, but I can tell you that the underground faults on Merriman, Malvern, Palisades – all of those have a commitment to be done within 30 days.
What is the process after reporting an outage?
Ludle: So you call 311, we determine if it’s Ohio Edison or FirstEnergy and we send it to them.
Then we’ll try to look at a follow-up procedure to get back to you through the city, not through that.
Ludle explained an example of a streetlight with two known outages near Canyon Trail Park:
If I came out to that light right there and that has a ribbon, and obviously I can’t reach it, so I got to have a bucket truck. I go up and I determine it’s more than just a light issue. It’s an underground fault. I’m already here, take that ribbon and move it up to the top. So at least the people and neighbors think ‘Someone had to be here. A neighbor didn’t move it up there,’ or an overhead light, especially the overhead light on the pole. There’s nobody going to be able to get up there and move that ribbon up.
Someone takes a look at it and the ribbon (placed on the pole when the streetlight goes out, one is added for every time it goes out) moves up. It doesn’t mean it’s going to get fixed tomorrow, but at least you know somebody looked at it.
The biggest thing right now, FirstEnergy owns 23,000 lights in the city. Akron owns about 2,000. The city owns a certain amount of lights. There’s just under 1,200 requests out. It’s not quite 5 percent. We’re going to make a concentrated effort to get these on. Moving forward, the simplest thing is, you make a call, they come out, they fix the light and you know it’s working.
What is the city’s level of accountability with the companies that cut the streetlight wires when they’re replacing water lines?
Ludle: Now, what you’re talking about is when we contract these [lead pipe removals] out. The contractors come in and they call UTS, which is the Utility Tracking Service (Call811), and they mark the utility.
UTS comes out and sometimes they will not mark these direct burial lines between one acorn-style [streetlight] and the other. It’s a direct burial line, not in a conduit. I can tell you in this neighborhood, in Ward 1, we’ve been working for months with them to hold them accountable for things they did because we know where they work and we know where the lights are.
Right now, we have a deal with FirstEnergy for $154,000 to come in and upgrade all this infrastructure. It’s going to be our job in our law department to go back to those companies — it’s not going to be an easy process where we’re going to give them a bill and they’re going to pay. We’re going to work on it, and that’s why this thing is taking so long.
Will there be a price adjustment on the streetlight assessments because they’ve been out?
Ludle: I don’t have an answer for you right now. We’re going to look at that, ma’am, because your street light assessment hasn’t gone up in 10 years.
Ten years ago and 10 years today are not the same. So, your street sweeping for your leaves, those things haven’t gone up in 10 years. We’re trying to control costs.
Wilson: You assess taxes annually, right? Anybody who assesses taxes has a right to object to that assessment. That’s a process that happens. It’s a process anybody can do. Just sharing that with you as well.
What can neighbors do if they want to add streetlights to their street?
Ludle: Put a petition in, and if enough people sign the petition, then we’ll put the lights up. There’s many streets in Akron that have no streetlights. There’s streets in the city that don’t have sidewalks.
If people say, ‘I’ve moved in, I want sidewalks,’ well, you put sidewalks in, but it’s a petition process.
On my street we don’t have streetlights, we have lights in the yard but still pay taxes on streetlights. What about taxes on lights in my yard?
Ludle: Anything behind the sidewalk is privately owned. It’s not the responsibility of the city.
What’s the difference between a streetlight petition and objecting to paying the assessment?
Wilson: It’s two different things. Mr. Ludle was talking about a petition process to add new utilities to your street.
If you wanted street lights put in, you’d collect a certain amount of petition signatures per the city code, and I can look that up for you if you want to. The other thing was the tax assessment.
When your tax assessment comes in the mail, there’s an objection period that is stipulated on the mail piece that you have. How to reach out, how to file an objection, and then a hearing takes place. You give your argument, and a board weighs whether or not that is reasonable. I know one case in Merriman Hills that got $75 off their bill because of it.
What does the assessment include?
Ludle: When you go on your taxes now from Summit County, you’re going to see two assessments. One for streetlighting, the other for street cleaning. They are both based on your front footage.
That street cleaning portion is for your leaves. If you call for a dead animal and to fund our street cleaning, which also funds snowing, we have different levels of that. You can either choose to pay it or put it on your property taxes to pay over five years.
Who do we call about outages?
Hopkins: Call 1-888-LIGHTSS or email Fran Wilson at ward1@akronohio.gov.
What are some additional steps to take to report a streetlight outage?
- Call the City of Akron’s 311 line by dialing 311 or calling 330-375-2311 Monday through Friday. Or, report the outage using the 311 online submission form at AkronOhio.gov/311
- Submit a request online via Akron CitySourced or through the mobile app.
- Call FirstEnergy / Ohio Edison, the utility provider for street lights, at 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) and say “streetlight” after the automated greeting.
- Text “OUT” to 544487 (LIGHTS) if your mobile phone is the number associated with your FirstEnergy account.
- Go to the FirstEnergy website.
When you report, you’ll need to have the following information available:
- Description of the problem (e.g., light is completely off at night, stays on during the day, flickering or damaged pole/fixture).
- Your name and phone number.
- Exact address or location of the streetlight that’s out (nearest house number, business address or cross street)
- Utility pole number (usually stamped or tagged on the pole)
