Mythili joined the FOX 13 News family in July 2022 and is excited to call the mountains of Utah her home.
SALT LAKE CITY — There is a growing issue in Salt Lake City that is putting people's safety at risk and costing the city close to a million dollars to repair: copper wire theft from streetlights.
"The more it grows and the more walkable it becomes, the more businesses and restaurants, boutiques and stuff that are in the area, you get more of that foot traffic,” said Davis Matson, who lives in the area."Safety, between everyone sharing the roads — pedestrians, cars, cyclists, motorcyclists - pretty important for the area, I would say.
"So when wire theft happens, we have to pull the damaged wire out and we have to refeed the entire circuit — from the power source to every single light, and sometimes that can be very difficult,” explained Pearson.Maddie Stagg lives nearby and was surprised to hear about people stealing copper wires.
Just for this fiscal year, Pearson said it cost public utilities $800,000 to make repairs after wire theft so far, which is more than 3-4 times the cost of previous years. They had to double their maintenance budget this year, which takes away from other programs.
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