Since the development of Fountain Park, the town’s namesake Fountain has glistened in white light shining on it each night. On Tuesday, Dec. 15, the attraction gained a new, more colorful lighting array.

Residents are encouraged to watch the lights in a location such as their car, home, or community viewing area. The fountain and lights will run on a regular running schedule for 15-minutes from the top of the hour from dark until 9 p.m.

The fountain has three locations of light fixtures with 18 total lights. Six lights are in the base of the fountain structure that shine upward, and two sets of six light fixtures shine onto the spray from the shore across the lake.

Over the years, the lights had failed to the point were only six of the possible 18 lights were operational. The fixtures had outlived their life expectancy and required replacement.

Town staff searched for the best product to meet the unique requirements of lighting a water feature that shoots water up to 560-feet into the air and can withstand that water falling back on the lighting equipment. Also, since Fountain Hills is a Dark Sky designated community, the town wanted to find a lighting system that would not impact this designation.

The research determined that a new color-changing LED lighting system with four lights mounted directly under the fountain and six lights on the shore, for a total of 10 lights, will provide ample lighting and still meet the Dark Sky regulations.

By reducing the number of lighting fixtures, the Community Services Parks staff has proactively reduced the cost of investment and overall operational expenses by moving to LED options. The new lighting components have a 25-year life expectancy and will improve efficiency by between 40 and 103 percent over the previous fully operational system.