BATON ROUGE - At the East Baton Rouge Metro Council meeting Wednesday evening, there was an item on the agenda that authorized the Mayor-President to provide $500,000 in partial funding to provide three community "lighthouses" to assist the citizens of the East Baton Rouge Parish during widespread power outages.

The "lighthouses" are a solar panels installed onto buildings, allowing them to provide energy in emergency situations.

Lead Organizer of Together Baton Rouge Edgar Cage said lighthouses will provide basic necessities to those in need during an outage, such as heating, air conditioning, and recharging electronics.

"Everybody deserves a chance at life and a quality of life and should not be denied or kept away from a resource that they might need in event of a power outage," he said.

If approved, the lighthouses will be built at the St. Mark United Methodist Church, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in North Baton Rouge, and IBEW Local Union 995. There is no time frame for construction. 

Cage says that these units can reduce the calls for first responders to do welfare checks during power outages.

"You wouldn't have to be transported anywhere. You can walk to one of these lighthouses to get whatever services that you might need that they can provide," he said.
 
Edgar feels that lighthouses are a necessity. 

"Our goal eventually, is for the state to have a lighthouse within a 15-minute walking distance of every person in Louisiana. I know it's very ambitious, but this is a start," he said. 

Residents will be able to share their opinions on the topic at the Metro Council meeting on Oct. 23. Council members said they do not have enough information on the item to give an opinion nor a decision yet.