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ICOLE council members gathered August 26, 2000 to convene a Council meeting and host a forum for discussion of outdoor lighting and light pollution. Ed Harfmann recorded the event with pictures. Thanks Ed! Some of Ed's pictures and a summary of events can be viewed here.

Due to the efforts of a single member of the Floyd County Plan Commission the county served by county seat New Albany appears to be on the verge of adopting a lighting ordinance. The Louisville Courier-Journal's front page 9/5/00 article reported that Brian Sieg noted continual complaints by remonstrators at zoning and variance hearings about the negative impact of unregulated commercial lighting. He catalogued the complaints, brought them to the attention of his fellow commissioners and presented a draft ordinance which they voted unanimously to adopt. Two of the three county commissioners are on the plan commission. Brian is consulting with ICOLE regarding final revisions before the adoption process is completed.

9/24/00

The Nashville Town Council voted unanimously at its June 2000 meeting to adopt a comprehensive outdoor lighting ordinance. Local shop owner Jim Lawrence led a strong negative reaction by many in the community to a new Amoco station over lit with intensely glaring fixtures. With ICOLE assistance Jim provided extensive input into the ordinance creation process. Jim reports that when completed the Town Council voted 3-2 to send it to the area Plan Commission. The plan commission voted 4-1 to approve and with the final town council vote ordinance support became unanimous. It established a requirement that all outdoor light fixtures direct all of their illumination onto the parcel where installed and sets a light trespass "spill" limit measured in footcandles. It establishes commercial illumination level limits. New lighting must comply for approval, existing lighting requires compliance not later than seven years hence.

ICOLE's southwest Indiana council representative Mitch Luman reports on proactive momentum in the Evansville area. Mitch and fellow area activists have identified year 2000 goals. Dialogues have been established with the Vanderburgh County plan commission about drafting a comprehensive lighting ordinance and with area electric utility SIGECO about offering shielded lighting, and an educational mailer. The group discussed a positive public relations campaign focusing on area examples of good lighting and a plan to work with the Lynnville Park board to achieve full shielding at the park, the location of the Evansville Astronomical Society's Wahnsnieder Observatory.

The Allen County Department of Planning Services has constructed a draft of a new development code which includes comprehensive outdoor lighting standards. The full draft has received the editorial endorsement of both the Fort Wayne News Sentinel and Journal Gazette. The provisions include important limits on illumination from canopy lighting, signage, exterior sales display lighting and period fixtures. ICOLE has congratulated ACDPS and excepted an invitation to submit detailed comments on the draft.

Associated Press writer Calvin Woodard's article "Let There Be Night" appeared on web sites for ABC News, CNN, SF Gate, and was the subject of a CBS radio program with reporter Charles Osgood. Fox News reported the comments it contains about the Link Observatory. It states "The Goethe Link Observatory, discoverer of many minor planets from its bluff outside Indianapolis, lost much of its research value a decade ago because of night light from spreading suburbs. Now a brilliantly illuminated gas station six miles away has made it still harder to see the universe, astronomers say."

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The Martinsville Reporter-Times sent a reporter to a program Dan Goins of the Indiana Astronomical Society conducted for the local Kiwanis Club. Dan talked about light pollution and the observatory as well as astronomy. This front page article, "Light Blinds Local Astronomers" appeared in the Reporter-Times the next day.

Regards,
Dave Clark
Effective Outdoor Lighting Council of Texas (EOLC)
eolc@fc.net
http://www.fc.net/~eolc/

Note: Governor Bush signed HB916 into law June 19, 1999

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Note: The Ames Ordinance is now in effect.

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We have received word that New Mexico Governor Johnson signed the New Mexico Dark-Sky Protection Act http://www.seeNstars.org/lights/99bill.htm into law on the evening of April 6th.  New Mexico now joins Connecticut, Maine, and Arizona in having a state wide outdoor lighting law.  Congrats to all who worked diligently for this achievement.

ICOLE representatives Forrest Hamilton and Kevin Fleming traveled to Tucson, AZ to attend the International Dark-Sky Association meeting April 23, 24, and 25th. Numerous reports were made by groups working for lighting reform around the country and in Japan. Kevin announced the formation of ICOLE. He noted that participation was not limited to those currently living in Indiana and encouraged participation in ICOLE by out of state people with Indiana connections. Forrest gave a talk on the past, present, and future of the IDA web site. Forrest is the IDA web master. Tom Klekamp discussed methods he used to successfully gain an ordinance to improve outdoor lighting in his home of Mandeville, LA.

ICOLE's Southwest Representative Mitch Luman and other concerned people from the Evansville area have taken some productive steps towards promoting better outdoor lighting in their region. Mitch reported on the ICOLE listserver that "A meeting of the Southwestern Region of ICOLE meet at the Evansville Museum on January 30 for the purpose of forming a "plan of action" and to discuss pertinent local issues regarding outdoor lighting. Michael Borman (a lighting engineer), Scott Conner (President of the Evansville Astronomical Society), Mitch Luman (Evansville Museum) and Tom Pickett (University of Southern Indiana) are leading a group of interested individuals in the Evansville area."

Mitch listed specific projects the group identified. He concluded, "A future meeting will be held soon to choose projects for implementation , set goals and make timelines for 1999 and beyond. Individuals participating in ICOLE activities in southwestern Indiana may contact mluman@emuseum.org for the next meeting date and time."

Congratulations to the Southwest Region for providing a great example of how to take the bull by the horns and work as a team.

The Sunday December 27,1998 edition of the Indianapolis Star carried the featured "letter spotlight" entitled "Shinning a light on wasted electricity" accompanied by a cartoon from the Los Angeles Time syndicate. The cartoon depicted an upright vacuum cleaner sucking up dollar bills and the dust bag was shaped like a light bulb. The cartoon is not visible on-line.

The Indiana Sierra Club's resolution calling on state and local governments to take actions to reduce light pollution will be reported in the upcoming edition of the club's newsletter, The Indiana Sierran, along with an article submitted by Kevin Fleming. The newsletter's mailing list contains about 8,000 people with a keen interest in Indiana's environment and the positions of the Indiana Sierra Club.

 Prof. Burkhead ICOLE Consultant

Martin Burkhead, Professor Emeritis, Indiana University Astronomy has agreed to serve ICOLE as a consultant. Martin is enjoying retirement in Bloomington after a long career at IU. He has long been active in promoting outdoor lighting reform. His contributions to ICOLE will be valuable.

A press release announcing ICOLE and urging "shield the glow, Amoco" was sent to 24 media outlets around Indiana on November 20, 1998. It explains ICOLE's mission to promote outdoor lighting reform.

On Saturday October 31^st the Indianapolis Star ran an article on the front page of the metro west section of the paper's edition for Hendricks and Morgan Counties. It reports on light pollution as it relates to development and planning and zoning requirements.

Mitch Luman's promotion of light pollution awareness has generated media coverage in Evansville. Mitch said "I presented a light pollution program at the Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve last Wednesday which received newspaper and radio coverage here in the Evansville market. The stories ran the same week as the AP story on the Martinsville gas station."

The Evansville Press ran an article October 28^th "Urban Lights Stealing The Stars" which featured numerous quotes from Mitch detailing the economic waste of misdirected outdoor lighting. Mitch said The Press is an afternoon daily with a circulation of 40,000. He added, " I've been involved in the outdoor lighting issues during the past several years in my capacity as planetarium and science center director of at our local museum. I have developed a slide program, which I have presented on three occasions at service club meetings to about 100 people."

An article entitled "Let There (Not) Be Light" written by Bloomington Herald-Times reporter A.J. Nelson and published October 27^th was picked up by the Associated Press Midwest wire. The story appeared, in some cases in condensed form, in papers such as in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Kokomo, Muncie, Johnson County, the Indianapolis News, and the Louisville Courier-Journal. Al Mitterling also reports that the article appeared in the Warsaw newspaper. The article reports on the effect of extremely bright Amoco gas station lighting on the nearby Link Observatory and on driving safety. It contains supportive quotes from the chairman of the IU Astronomy Dept. Prof. Kent Honeycutt, Prof. Merrill Allen from the IU School of Optometry, Bill Hayden from the Indiana Sierra Club and members of the Indiana Astronomical Society.

Bryan Greer is past president of the Columbus (OH) Astronomical Society and the principal representative of OLPAC, the Ohio Light Pollution Advisory Committee. Bryan organized a forum held October 22^nd at Perkins Observatory which was attended by several Ohio representatives of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). The gathering featured a presentation by Bryan with extended discussion by the participants, which included lighting engineers, street lighting department staff, and representatives of a lighting manufacturer, Holophane. The discussion was informative and demonstrated the usefulness of dialogue with lighting decision-makers in promoting reconsideration of some entrenched ideas about lighting performance, and advance outdoor lighting reform. The forum's recurring theme was that the most important specification of a light fixture is "how well does it allow you to see." The answer is, if it is glaring then not very well.

Bryan also reports that he has added a link to the ICOLE web site on the OLPAC web site. Thanks Bryan.

On September 18 the Indianapolis Star published an article about efforts by the Indiana Astronomical Society and Indiana University to refurbish Link Observatory. It contains several comments about light pollution.

The Martinsville Reporter (Morgan County) ran an article I submitted October 5. It briefly chronicles the history of the Link Observatory, detailing the legacy that it represents for the county. I pointed out that the county's dark starry skies were the reason it was selected as the site of the observatory, and that with careful outdoor lighting choices the legacy of the observatory could continue.

Kevin Fleming

On September 22nd I made a presentation about outdoor lighting at Monrovia, a small town 15 miles outside suburban Indianapolis. It was well-received. My ten minute allotted time stretched into about 35 minutes without a hint to wrap it up. The presentation got some good press in the county's main daily the next day and fairly characterized what I had said.

The plan commission president had asked me to bring a proposal for a completed set of lighting control ordinances. The details will require further tweaking but the basic premise of the framework, namely a limit on lumens per acre for full-cutoffs, and a small non-cutoff allowance, seemed to be favorably received. The proposal was conservative to allow for some flexibility without excessive weakening. I called the president two days later to get his reaction. He expressed his compliments and appreciation, and said he is nearly certain that the proposal will be adopted into the town's ordinances.

I approached this as primarily a visual experience for the commission members. I shot five rolls of slide film and ended up with 40 pretty good images that made the difference between good and poor lighting obvious. The images of bright lighting allowed them to see for themselves that "veiling luminance" and "stopped-down pupils" are not just abstract ideas but real problems from glare and excess illumination that cause them to not see. The darkened shrubbery in the foreground at an ultra-bright gas station demonstrates that the eye must do what the camera did - adjust to the bright lights, causing diminished vision of darker areas.

The commission members took the framework for lighting ordinances that I supplied them under advisement and promised to contact me when they proceed to adopt its measurers.

Kevin Fleming

Home | Our Purpose | Light Pollution Quick Facts & Solutions | What's New | Information Materials
Framework for Lighting Ordinances | Relevant Links | Media Archives | Supporting ICOLE
Subscribing it ICOLE's e-mail List | Contact Us