Across the world, streetlights brighten our roads, intersections, sidewalks, and other public spaces. They are important in providing lighting to help increase visibility, promote road safety for drivers and pedestrians, and discourage theft or violence.

In some places, streetlights are owned and maintained by a power provider, but since 2014 the City of North Plains has owned and maintained streetlights within the city limits. The monthly Transportation Utility Fee you see on your water bill helps to pay for the operation and maintenance of our streetlights.

While the first streetlights in the world originated in London, England, in 1802 and were coal-fueled gas lights, the power from our streetlights originates from PGE. The lights in North Plains are predominantly energy-efficient LED bulbs but there are still older high-pressure sodium fixtures in parts of town. The City is beginning a process to switch them over to LEDs by the end of this year.

Our lights also come on and off automatically. Each has a sensor that turns the light on or off based on the amount of daylight so that it comes on at dusk and turns off at dawn. Occasionally, streetlights may flicker on and off as they take in and adjust to increasing light or darkness, so it’s not unusual to see this. However, if you notice it during the day or in the middle of the night, that could indicate an issue with the light.

What to do if you notice an issue with a streetlight? Please let us know so that we can check the light and, if needed, get it repaired as soon as possible. We recently launched a new form on our website where you can easily report streetlight outages or issues 24-7. If you prefer, you can also call us at 503-647-5555 during business hours.

When reporting, it’s important to share with us the location of the pole, what it’s doing, and what time of day you noticed this. Each light pole includes a 3-inch round metal tag at about eye level with a pole number on it. This is called a pole tag and if you can provide this it will speed up our ability to identify the pole to check out.

We hope this City 101 on streetlights was illuminating! Please share other ideas you have for things about the City that we can explain in future articles. You can visit all past City 101 articles here.