The Town of Fountain Hills will not be making any changes to the walkway lighting in Fountain Park. The council voted 6-0 at its Oct. 20 regular session to leave the bollard lights as they are. Vice Mayor Nick DePorter was absent.

“I can’t support any more staff time or money on this,” Councilman Dennis Brown said in making his motion to do nothing.

Brown said he appreciated the efforts and concerns of citizens who brought the issue to the forefront and suggested that in five to 10 years, when the lights begin to fail, they can consider replacements that would be dimmer.

The lights were installed in the park during the summer of 2015 and soon after they were operational, residents in the area and dark sky advocates began to question whether the lighting was appropriate. They complained about the brightness and too much light shining upward.

They also suggested that the fixtures did not meet the specifications the town requested from vendors. Staff was asked to review the situation.

Community Services Director Mark Mayer said they hired the consulting engineers Kimley-Horn to field test the lighting. Engineer Michael Colombo conducted the tests and presented his results to the council.

Colombo explained that the basis for his testing was published modeling results from both manufacturer’s testing and Kimley-Horn lab modeling compared to field testing at the park.

Colombo said the testing showed no significant difference between the manufacturer’s published standards and the results of the field testing.

He added that the design of the fixtures is that of a “full cutoff fixture” meaning light measured above the fixture is a value that does not exceed 10 percent of lamp lumens.

“The light that is being observed above the fixture is due to the reflective, angled surfaces of the aluminum bollard and the reflective ground surfaces (concrete sidewalk),” Colombo said.

Challenged

Ted Blank, with the dark skies group in town, presented the council with a report from an engineer he had hired to evaluate the lighting.

Christian Monrad P.E. of Monrad Engineering, an electrical engineering firm based in Tucson, wrote the report Blank cited.

Monrad reviewed product data sheets, laboratory photometric files and photographs for his conclusions.

“It is my professional opinion that the luminaries indisputably have uplight emissions above the horizontal plane and do not perform as purported in their published laboratory files that indicated zero uplight components,” Monrad wrote. “I concur with your belief that the published…Acuity Brands laboratory file associated with the specified bollards as installed is not truly or accurately representative of the products with regard to uplight and glare flux as installed in your community.”

In a statement presented to the council, Blank also said he believes the council has enough documentation to indicate that the manufacturer of the bollards misled the town concerning the specifications for the lighting, and he asked the council to act on that information.

Staff presented the council with four options to address the issue: replace the grey bollards, 287 at a cost of $840.13 each ($235,235 plus tax and shipping); replace the grey cap with a black on at 41,441 each (403,480 plus tax and freight); relamp or adjust each of the bollards to provide a lower light level at $277.75 each ($77,770 plus tax and freight); or leave the lights as they are.

Also, it was stated that the lights were purchased and installed to assure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was unclear whether the replacements would remain ADA compliant without further testing.

“I’m not convinced this is a priority,” Councilman Alan Magazine said. “I could never support this kind of expense.”