How Many Neighbors Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Yes - this post is literally about changing a light bulb. But please read on because it’s a good story.

There are 6 non-standard street/security lights on Melrose Blvd. They were part of a neighborhood improvement initiative back in 2003 that was funded by the city (when Baton Rouge had money lying around, I guess) and spearheaded by our council person at the time who worked in cooperation with the Melrose Civic Association.

These 6 security lights pick up from where  the standard street lights leave off on Melrose Blvd. They provide a considerable amount of omnidirectional light at the entrance and play an important role in keeping that entrance safe.

The thing is, these lights did not come with a terms of service. They do not show up on the Entergy streetlight map, so Entergy will not claim responsibility in maintaining them. Similarly, according to the current EBR traffic coordinator, the city-parish is not responsible for maintaining them either. However, they appear to be metered along with regular street lights, so….let’s just say we’re not looking a gift horse in the mouth when it comes to paying the electric bill.

One of the 6 lights was malfunctioning in the spring due to (we think) a branch from a nearby tree striking the light assembly.  A 311 call turned into a months-long rabbit hole that led to discovering everything mentioned above. Eventually, it became clear the cavalry was not coming to save us.

A commercial electrician was called, but the diagnostic charge alone seemed steep. So, we just decided to fix the thing ourselves. It was time to go full Ron Swanson on it.

Enter Nathaniel Klumb, a fellow Melrosian and all-around capable person in the face of messy problems in the physical world. After trimming the problematic branches, he took a few readings and determined it was probably just the LED light bulb that needed changing.

The problem was getting to the bulb safely - it’s up 15 feet, and more stability than a ladder was needed to work with it at that height. Nathaniel provided scaffolding (which was wheeled to and from his home TWICE), and we used this to get to the fixture. Once the scaffolding was erected, removing the bulb proved to be the easy part. At that point we knew which model to order.

After the new bulb arrived, a 3 person crew (including myself) struck out again with the scaffolding and replaced the bulb and did a small glass repair on the optics (the globe surrounding the bulb) with plumbers putty.  Afterwords, we cleaned 5 of the 6 lights to remove about 20 years of grime from the glass. You can see the difference, especially at night!

I would like to thank Vic Sanchez, Steve Gremillion, and especially Nathaniel for dedicating hours of their time and sweat to making this seemingly small thing happen back in July (sweat is not just a euphemism here). Also, thanks to Sam Irwin for playing godfather writ large to maintaining the Melrose Blvd entrance.

Moral of the story: sometimes the cavalry is me and you.

September, 2025

David West

President, Melrose Civic Association