Dunkirk officials complained again last week about the botched installation of LED street lighting in the city.

“We’re disappointed so many are out. We were given a 10-year guarantee,” by the provider of the light diodes, said Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury at a DPW committee meeting.

BECC Electric has been contracted to replace inoperable lights. “Probably as they do them, more will go out,” Woodbury said. “I’m not happy with the longevity of the project.”

Mike Przybycien, DPW’s deputy director, said there are 89 streetlights not working in the city at last count. He expressed optimism that BECC can get through them, “weather permitting, in a week or two.”

Przybycien said DPW does not have the proper trucks to do the job itself.

Nancy Nichols, the city councilwoman who chairs the DPW committee, stated the Common Council is pushing DPW and other city departments to hold the provider of the broken lighting accountable.

Neither Nichols nor anyone else named the company. However, it was stated at a council meeting in March that it was LED Solutions, an Alabama-based company, who made Dunkirk’s faulty lights.

Woodbury suggested that the city law department is looking into legal action about the LEDs. The new lights were installed in 2022-23.

The city’s stance on the lights has evidently changed since former Mayor Wilfred Rosas was in office. In December 2023, he stated that bad fuses were causing the problems and “The lights we have purchased are good.”

Rosas also said at the time, “There is some miscommunication here with people on our own staff that believe the company is responsible. We did look into that and that is not the case.”