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New Orleans looking for new home for painted electrical box

"We are working to determine whether we can redeploy it in another location," press secretary LaTonya Norton said.

City leaders are determining if a decorated electrical box can find a new home after a WWL-TV report asked why some of the boxes across New Orleans were disappearing.

The decorated traffic control boxes have become well-known and easy to spot in many neighborhoods in New Orleans, but some have been disappearing -- including a well-known one on Canal and Basin featuring Irma Thomas.

"And people were very upset, they said what happened to Irma? Where's Irma's box?" Jeannie Tidy with Community Visions Unlimited asked.

Tidy's group gets approval from the City of New Orleans, raises money and then hires artists to make works of art.

The boxes actually protect traffic control units that include electrical switches and timing equipment for traffic lights.

Tuesday, a spokesperson for Mayor LaToya Cantrell's office said the Department of Public Works replaced the Irma Thomas box with a larger cabinet that protects new equipment that handles signals for the new streetcar. The city says the box that the Irma Thomas box is still in good condition and has been preserved.

"The goal is to redeploy the traffic control box painted with Irma Thomas when a new cabinet is needed," press secretary LaTonya Norton said. "

Norton added that the CVU does not have an agreement with the city to paint the traffic control boxes, but the city is looking into creating on in the future.

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