UPPER WEST SIDE — A pair of in-ground solar lights along Columbus Avenue were stolen from the sidewalk earlier this month, a local business group said.
The 6-inch-wide lights, which cost $600 each, were part of a streetscape project installed by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District in May 2013. The job also included adding a new drainage system, plantings and benches to beautify the stretch of sidewalk between West 76th and 77th streets.
The theft, discovered by a BID employee on Sept. 3, has puzzled and infuriated the group's executive director Barbara Adler.
"They were gouged out of the sidewalk, leaving two gaping holes that are horrifying and very upsetting," she wrote in the BID's newsletter.
Her only theory for a possible motive is that the lights contained a stainless steel rim, a material that has resale value, she told DNAinfo.
Adler planned to file a police report and is seeking out witnesses, but replacing the lights may prove the biggest challenge, she said.
SimBio USA, the company that originally manufactured and installed the lights, is no longer producing solar lights, Adler explained.
The BID will have to go with another manufacturer, likely increasing the time and cost of replacing the lights, she said.
In addition to the two that were stolen, another eight of the lights need to be replaced after moisture got inside them, she said.
"It’s very likely now we will have to replace all 25 in-ground lights so they have the same light and look the same," she said.
The solar lights are paid for by the BID through its fundraising at the annual New Taste of the Upper West Side food event.
The BID's fundraising also supports the nonprofit Wellness in the Schools and the DOE Fund's work cleaning up and maintaining the avenue, among other projects.
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