Street Lights Repaired After Copper Wire Theft

        A project to fix street lights in the city of Fresno is complete.
       
        Mayor Ashley Swearengin said it was one historic day as the final steps were taken to protect street lights from copper wire thieves.
       
        The access boxes have been a target for crooks, mostly drug addicts. They ripped the copper wire out of street lights to recycle and pay for their drugs.
       
        Mayor Swearengin said the city is now safer as a result. Over the past few years, neighbors across the city have been hit by crooks. When street lights are out, neighborhoods dark, and that gives other criminals the cover of darkness to break into homes and steal cars.
        It cost the city about 450 dollars to fix a street light stripped of copper wire. The council found funding to make the repairs and encase the wiring of 22-thousand street lights in concrete to prevent thieves from getting to it.
        "So within the next few months we will be at the point of being able to tell the people of Fresno that if the lights are out in your neighborhood you're looking at a two to four week repair cycle," said Mayor Swearengin.