WINK Listens: No street lights in parts of Arcadia leave residents feeling unsafe

ARCADIA, Fla. (WINK)—An Arcadia woman stopped by WINK Listens in DeSoto County to "shine a light" on a problem in her neighborhood.

Brenda Clifton said the street where she lives and others nearby don't have street lights. 

"They haven't replaced the street lights," Clifton said.

She said the issue is specifically near North Sixteenth Avenue, close to where she lives.

"Somebody walking down the road, even some kid might be coming from a game, they got to walk down that dark road," Clifton said.

WINK News reporter Sommer Senne hit the streets to investigate, visiting North Sixteenth Avenue, East Cypress Street, and the surrounding residential areas to see for herself. 

From what she saw, most of the streets did not have street lights. On the few that did, like East Maple Street, half of them were not on.

"We have kids on those roads," Clifton said. "Kids play out there and ride their bikes and stuff like that."

Senne returned to Arcadia during the day for a closer look, and that's when she met Carlo Benitez. He said cars treat his street as a raceway.

"The cars don't want to stop, and they come at 60 miles an hour. It's going to be an accident," Benitez said. "So the lights prevent accidents, too. I'm scared because, I mean, if you have your time, cross the street, they don't pay attention," Benitez said.

Learning this, Senne emailed the City of Arcadia and Florida Power and Light about these concerns.

The City of Arcadia replied with the following statement: 

"We’ve reached out to our FPL representative to request additional streetlights in the area you mentioned, especially where there are currently none. We are also reporting the existing outages to FPL so those lights can be repaired. Once we receive an update or timeline from FPL, I will let you know."

As of Wednesday, they have submitted three work orders to FPL for the existing outages.

Below is a statement sent by Florida Power and Light:

"Streetlight installation and upgrades are requested and funded by the City of Arcadia. FPL is working with city officials on the city's recent request for additional lighting, including reviewing available options based on the city's specifications and existing electric infrastructure serving the area," the statement said.

As for the lights that weren't on, FPL claims they're not broken and weren't supposed to be on. Instead, the lights adjust to the darkness, and it wasn't dark enough for two lights to be on at the same time.

"There are no lights, and they're so dark in the night. It's dangerous for them, for the community walking in," Benitez said.

"I wouldn't want anything to happen to anybody, and no street lights," Clifton said.

Neighbors are hoping these streets are lit up as quickly as possible. FPL said customers can report streetlight outages on its website.

For more WINK Listens stories, click here.