MISSION – Dozens of street lights in parts of Hidalgo County Precinct 3 are not working. One resident said she wants the lights fixed after noticing questionable activity happening on her property.

Pat Longoria said four different groups of people crossing the border illegally have passed through her property that’s about a mile away from the Rio Grande.

“Usually when the helicopter comes in, it’s because they’ve been called by other patrol agents,” she said.

Longoria said she’s seen it all - from drugs to people crossing into the country illegally.

“We do see the Border Patrol agents roaming. But we also see those cars come around the cul-de-sac and boom, boom, book, pick ‘em up and go,” she said.

She said she feels secure enough during the day but it’s the night she worries about. She mentioned she was grateful when Hidalgo County installed solar street lights about seven years ago.

But two years ago they stopped working.

“I’ve got every single light that we’ve put in different colonias, different parks that are out,” Dr. Mona Parras with Precinct 3 Commissioner Joe Flores’s office said.

She mentioned 74 solar lights are out across the precinct.

The county got them through a federal Department of Energy grant. They didn’t know the batteries in the lights would go out all at the same time.

It was a cost of about $1,900 per light.

“We’ve got to find the money,” Parras said.

Longoria said she hopes the county finds the room in the budget soon.

County officials said they plan to get the solar lights at Anzalduas Park back up and running first, then the lights near Abram Park by Longoria’s house, then other parks and then the ones in colonias.

They said they’re currently getting new quotes for those batteries.