Darkened streets in Elon pose danger to the life safety of college students. You may notice on a recurring basis as the sun sets through the environs west in the town of Elon, during any evening here, and as darkness sets in, the street lighting along West Haggard Avenue follows the path of the setting sun.

At a closer look, there are street light fixtures installed, but no viable light emanates from those fixtures.

This poses a question, what if a student were walking back to their apartment or house and subsequently were hit by an unsuspecting motorist at night?

That action would have members of the administration of both the university and town wondering why that driver did not see the student, when in actuality, maybe it is because there was no light on the street from which that student could be seen.

After this issue was pointed out to me by a senior member of the university's physical plant utilities personnel, it occurred to me that I often burn my high beams at night driving back into town just to see students walking along side and across the street, to avoid running them over. As an emergency services personnel in Durham County, N.C. and a public administration major here at Elon, I strongly feel that correcting this problem would be a prerogative for any town manager and or public works director.

There are approximately 15 to 20 street light fixtures along the portion of West Haggard Avenue between Manning and Williamson avenues, and there seem to be two to three street lights that actually function properly on a nightly basis, and 12 to 17 that do not, which by simple arithmetic tells us that 15-20 percent of the total streetlights are in working order, and a striking 80-85 percent of them do not function!

After multiple calls to the town's public works department over the years, this emanating work ticket seems to go by the wayside, with no progressive outcome.

This issue is one that should be on top of the pile of work tickets, and corrected in a timely fashion to protect the safety of the pedestrians among us.

Student: Benjamin Pula 09 - 02/08/07