Inquirer: Vandals darken end of RiverWalk

Running is good for you, I'm told, though I have little to no experience with it. Running in the dark, however, is another thing.

I got an email from a Concerned Runner who likes to exercise on the northern end of the RiverWalk early in the morning. Problem is, it's dark out when he likes to run, and many of the lights along that stretch of the RiverWalk are not functioning. CR counted 14 of the first 26 lights.

"I run on the North RiverWalk almost every day -- have for the past 15 years. Normally, I start out with my dog around 5 a.m. and run for an hour or so. At that hour it's usually quiet, peaceful and a great place to run and think. (The nice thing about running with your dog is they don't talk.) Lately though it's a bit darker than we'd like."

CR said he'd notified the city's 311 call center but hadn't seen any progress.

"I notified the city via the 311 system twice in October, but apparently I'm either not getting their attention or fixing the lights is too hard. Can you help?"

Apparently you did get their attention, CR.

I've written about burned out lights causing a dark stretch of RiverWalk before and about

some vandalized lights along the Sewage Treatment Plant Road, which runs alongside it, so I knew who to call, and it isn't the city.

What I mean is, you can call the city, and probably should, but they're going to call Georgia Power, who is in charge of maintenance and repair on much of the city's lighting, and all of it on the RiverWalk.

So I skipped the middle man and called Georgia Power spokesman Robert Watkins.

"If they're on the RiverWalk, we fix them," Watkins said. "Sometimes we don't have enough (decorative globes) in stock and we have to order them. If there are 14 of them out, then we probably wouldn't have enough in stock and they'd probably be on order."

Watkins checked into it and it turns out, they'd already been called by the city about those lights and had been out to repair them once.

"Yeah, we know about the lights. In fact, we went out there and repaired them and then just a night or two later they tore them up again," Watkins said. "The first time put us out of stock. So they're on order now and we'll start putting them back next week."

You see, this is why we can't have nice things.

Maybe the city should tie guard dogs to each pole at night. I'd suggest pit bulls, but according to their owners, they're too sweet and cuddly for the job.

See something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowenledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 10:20 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Vandals darken end of RiverWalk ."