RESIDENTS HOLD 'WELCOME HOME' FOR STREET LIGHTS SIX-YEAR STRUGGLE FINALLY PAID OFF.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

PACOIMA - First there was a flicker, then a steady glow, then shouts of joy Tuesday evening from residents of a neighborhood that had just completed a six-year quest to get street lights.

At a ceremony in Pacoima, residents of the Bromont-Eustace neighborhood near the junction of the Ronald Reagan and Foothill freeways ate tacos, listened to music and heard city officials retrace the history of their struggle for street lights.

In mid-December, Los Angeles Department of Public Works officials activated 35 pole-mounted lights in the neighborhood, basking it in a man-made glow for the first time since the houses were built in the early 1960s.

The project's $170,000 cost was funded by the city Community Redevelopment Agency; residents agreed to pay $55 annually for maintenance.

Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, who represents Pacoima, said at Tuesday's lighting ceremony that the city Department of Water and Power will consider setting aside $1.6 million for residents who want street lights but can't afford the normal $1,600-per-home installation fee.

The fund would light up to a square mile, said Stan Horwitz of the city Bureau of Street Lighting. City officials say about one-third of Los Angeles' 465 square miles have no street lights, although many of the areas are rural foothills and canyons where residents prefer darkness.

Not so in Pacoima's Bromont-Eustace neighborhood. There, resident Richard Gallegos said, residents have pleaded and negotiated with city leaders at least since 1996 for lights to deter crime and illegal dumping.

Gallegos said he circulated petitions in 1997 and found that nearly all residents were willing to pay $55 per year for maintenance, although many people in the working-class neighborhood couldn't afford $1,600 to install the lights.

Gallegos credited Padilla and residents for not giving up until the community redevelopment aid came through. Gallegos said tears of joy rolled down his cheeks when he first came home to a lighted street.

``'By working together, we made this happen,'' said Gallegos, a resident for 27 years. ``I'm very happy.''

City officials acknowledge that redevelopment money and federal grants won't bring light to all unlighted neighborhoods, many of which span the East Valley.

Mayor James Hahn ordered a study last August of how to fund new street lights. Los Angeles is the only large city in the United States that requires residents to pay the up-front cost of new street lights; other cities pay for lights through their general funds.

The street-light study should be finished in six to eight weeks, said Robert Reed, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works.

Meanwhile, residents of Bromont-Eustace are enjoying a newfound sense of community, several said. In the balmy nights of January, they strolled under the glow of the lights and had barbecues after dark.

``This is a happy time for us,'' said T.J. Williams, a resident for the past 40 years. ``We've been needing lights for a long time now.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Residents gather under the glow of recently installed street lights along Cometa Avenue in Pacoima during a symbolic lighting ceremony Tuesday to mark the neighborhood's six-year quest for the lights.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer