A proposal for the 50-foot Fountain of Light sculpture on the Avenue of the Fountains may conflict with plans for the Dark Sky Discovery Center, so the Town Council postponed a decision on the sculpture from its meeting on Sept. 17. The council was being asked to approve a location for the artwork on the Avenue Plaza in front of Town Hall.

Local artist Brian Schader has designed the steel and glass sculpture and is currently working on fundraising to donate the artwork to the town. Public Art Committee Co-Chair Carol Carroll told the council the goal is to have the sculpture in place for an official unveiling for the 50th anniversary of the Fountain start-up in December 2020.

The sculpture is designed to defuse light through glass blocks and Councilman Alan Magazine raised the concern about whether the light would violate the town’s lighting ordinances, which are designed to allow the town to comply with International Dark Sky Community standards, a designation the town received a couple of years ago.

“This seems very incongruous with our objectives as a Dark Sky Community,” Magazine said. “This is a really high sculpture with unshielded outdoor lighting. We clearly don’t want this close to the (proposed) Discovery Center.”

The council has approved a location for the Discovery Center adjacent to the Fountain Hills Library on some of the ground currently occupied by the Community Garden.

Schader said he had discussed the lighting regulations in place and said he does not believe there is an issue with the ordinance. He said the light will flow up through the glass with little to no outflow. He could not say specifically what level of light would emanate from the sculpture.

Council Members Dennis Brown and Art Tolis said they would prefer that the sculpture be in a higher traffic area such as a location along Shea Boulevard.

Brown asked Town Engineer Randy Harrel what is the busiest intersection in town. The answer is Palisades and Shea boulevards.

“I’m not set on having this as a downtown feature,” Brown said. “Can we rethink this and take it out of downtown to an area where there is more visibility?”

Tolis suggested the area on Shea Boulevard just off the Beeline Highway.

The Public Art Committee believes the downtown is the “ideal location” for the sculpture, Carroll said.

“We have been working on this project for a couple of years to get it ready for the anniversary,” she said. “We believe this further establishes the town’s identity with the fountain and would receive a lot of foot traffic.”

Joe Bill, who is co-chair of the committee working on the Dark Sky Discovery Center, told the council he was given very short notice on the agenda item for the sculpture.

“I applaud those trying to do great things for the town, but we should try not to work at cross purposes,” Bill said. “It will be hard to explain to the [International Dark Sky Committee] that we are putting up a 50-foot light.

“A telescope would see the light 1000 times brighter.”

Bill said if the light is no greater than that of a 75-watt bulb it should be acceptable.

Schader was asked whether he could get specific information from an engineer regarding the amount of light that would be emitted, and also whether he is willing to lower the height so that the sculpture is no higher than Town Hall, which would shield it from the Discovery Center location.

Schader said he is not opposed to scaling the structure down, or relocating it. He added it should not take too long to get the lighting information.

The council voted to take up the decision at a later date, but the specific time was not determined.