Where is Atlanta on its City Parks Light Replacement Project?

In November of last year, Atlanta parks and recreation officials promised to address the rash of copper thefts plaguing public green spaces.

Several neighborhood parks, including Freedom Park and Freedom Park Trail, Grant Park and Candler Park, among others were targets, as thieves, stripped the light poles of copper to resell.

In all, 30 parks across the city have been affected.

Several park supporters and public safety advocates stressed non-working lights made parks unsafe at dusk or the early morning hours.

In response, the city is replacing the copper with aluminum and the wiring is being relocated to the top of the poles. The light post base plates, which were the thieves' entrance points, will be sealed to make it harder to break into them.

Copper thefts aren't the only issue with non-working lights. Age affects some of them and in parks such as Brownwood Park in East Atlanta, the concern is there aren't enough of them.

Last week, East Atlanta Patch caught up with Doug Voss, the city's parks director, for an update on the department's lights replacement and installation plan.

Please click on the video to hear a portion of our conversation with Voss.