Shining a light on Watertown's missing bulbs

The Watertown City Council has had a bone to pick with National Grid. The council has complained at recent meetings that the utility company is not replacing, or even installing, ornamental lights throughout the city.

Councilman Jeffrey M. Smith, along with Councilwoman Roxanne M. Burns, voiced their displeasure with National Grid during the City Council meeting Monday night that lights along State, Washington and Holcomb streets are broken, mismatched or downright missing.

A particularly ugly stump, which I'm being told was once the base to an ornamental light, has not been fixed in front of Key Bank along the 200 block of Washington Street, for more than three years. Almost a dozen lights along State Street were never installed after the reconstruction project that concluded in 2008.

We'll talk with City Manager Mary M. Corriveau today and hopefully a representative from National Grid, to see where both stand on the light situation. The Times will then, pun intended, try to shine a light on the situation for our readers.

If you have spotted a missing or mismanaged ornamental light in the city, contact us.