House, mayors to outline framework so towns can repair streetlights

Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez

By THE STAR STAFF

Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez and Rep. Víctor Parés Otero, who chairs the Government Committee in the lower chamber, have called the island’s 78 mayors to a briefing next week to outline a new legal framework that will allow municipalities — for the first time — to carry out power reconstruction and maintenance of streetlight poles.

The meeting is scheduled for this Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the Leopoldo Figueroa Room on the first floor of the Capitol.

Méndez said legislative leaders have been working since December to create the necessary protocols and legal structure enabling local governments to help restore and maintain public lighting systems. Nearly nine years after Hurricane Maria struck in September 2017, many streets and neighborhoods across the island remain without functioning streetlights, he said.

“That legal framework is now ready, and the meeting is to present it,” Méndez said.

The new framework outlines the requirements and parameters for municipalities to replace and maintain streetlights using both state and federal funds already allocated for that work.

During the briefing, officials will detail the obligations municipalities must meet and walk through the components of the new legal structure.

Citing multiple studies, Parés said Puerto Rico has an estimated half‑million streetlight poles, but LUMA Energy, the private operator of the island’s transmission and distribution system, has repaired fewer than half of them.

“Our streets, roads and communities are in the dark,” Parés said. “We cannot continue like this. That’s why, together with the House speaker, we requested the Energy Bureau’s study and the creation of a legal framework so that municipalities can take on this important work.”

On Jan. 27, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau sent a letter to Méndez affirming that municipalities can legally undertake reconstruction and maintenance of streetlights and providing the applicable legal framework.

The move comes nearly six years after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority signed a services contract in June 2020 with LUMA, which also assumed responsibility for managing federal funds dedicated to replacing streetlights.