Hey, who turns on the lights?

Invisible boundaries crisscross the county at the speed of a streetlight — and identifying those boundaries is necessary to determine who fixes that light when it goes out.

But unless you are endowed with the vision of a public works superhero, you might feel left in the dark.

Street Smarts reader David Scontrino, of Lynnwood, reached out about what seemed like a simple request: Could someone please fix a trio of street lights that were out on southbound Highway 99 near Center Road?

“At night it is very difficult to see pedestrians crossing at this unmarked intersection,” he wrote.

But, who to ask to fix the problem?

One side of the street is Everett. The other side is unincorporated Snohomish County. The road itself is a state highway maintained by the Washington State Department of Transportation.

So it will be one of those three government agencies. Um, right?

Nope.

In this case, it ended up being the Snohomish County PUD — which was forwarded the repair fix.

Street light outages are typically fixed only once someone reports them. With thousands of lights, public works crews can’t always know when a single light has gone dark or on the fritz.

Snohomish County PUD maintains two-thirds of the streetlights in the county.

You can know if it’s a PUD light by looking up near the lens. There will be an ID including numbers preceded by an “A” or an “S.”

Regardless, folks should feel free to call the PUD for any streetlight maintenance issue in Snohomish County, such as outages or flickering, said Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman. “The PUD will make sure the light gets scheduled to be fixed or replaced as needed.”

Having the streetlight’s ID number is great. But a good address or specific location description is key — especially if it turns out to not be the PUD’s light.

To report streetlight issues to the Snohomish County PUD, call 425-783-1000 or fill out the online request form at www.snopud.com/?p=1736.

Have a question? Email us at streetsmarts@heraldnet.com. Please include your first and last name and city of residence. Look for updates on our Street Smarts blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/street-smarts.