Lighting up the Neighborhood

The soft glow of streetlights at night is a beloved feature of Birckhead, but for more than a year the lighting grid in Birckhead was dark. After the failure of the lighting system, work was started to figure out where the problem was located. It took some time. Toledo Edison evaluated the electric supply and concluded the problem was somewhere in our neighborhood, where the wiring is owned by Birckhead Place. Several private contractors were contacted, but had long wait-lists. Ultimately help was found when Reichow Electric was hired and attention turned to the underground wiring running to all the lights. In April 2021 residents Edward Hill, David Mitchell and Jacob Knoblauch assisted electrician Howard Reichow with digging down to the buried wires where faults were located. Today the majority of the lighting system is working, with replacement wiring planned to electrify the rest of the lights.

Update: Underground wiring was run in November 2021 and the remaining lights are now working.

Dave Mitchell, Edward Hill and Howard Reichow digging and assessing the underground street light wiring

Howard Reichow fixing the wiring in the base of a Birckhead light