Since spring the Town has been working to find a solution to the glare bomb bollards in Fountain Hills Park. Over 200 people signed a petition asking the Town to replace the offensive lights, and a consultant was hired to assess the situation and to propose possible solutions.

The consultant’s report will be discussed at the Town Council meeting on Oct. 20. As one of the 200 people who signed the petition, I ask the Town Council to consider the following points at this time.

The primary goal is to achieve zero uplight and glare. Eliminating the annoying glare requires replacing the bollards (or possibly just their “heads”) with units having blackened louvers, similar to hundreds of other successful bollard installations all around Fountain Hills. As the consultant’s report states, “The light that is being observed above the fixture is due to the reflective, angled surfaces of the aluminum bollard...”

A second issue is the color temperature of the LEDs. It has been proposed to simply replace the 4000K LED’s in the existing bollards with 3000K LED’s. Merely changing the LED’s to 3000K without replacing the bollards with louvered units would do nothing to eliminate the uplight and glare that people are complaining about.

Finally, the bollard lights should throw light only onto the path, not onto the grass or into the eyes of drivers on El Lago and Panorama. A “forward throw” option that would do this is available. The bollard lights are intended to light the path, not the park. Light only what is needed.

I commend the Council for addressing this issue. I look forward to attending the meeting on Oct. 20 to learn what action the Council will take, and I invite anyone who enjoys a night walk around the park to attend as well.