Holmes courthouse lighting project is discussed

The Holmes County Board of Commissioners recently revisited the idea of how the county could best go about highlighting its county courthouse through lighting, meeting with Chris Pratt of Jack Duffy & Associates. Pratt is a manufacturer’s representative to more than 100 different companies, allowing him to find the best deals and provide exactly what clients want to see in their lighting.

The county had been in discussion with Zinkon Creative out of Columbus but couldn’t complete any type of deal and thus returned to Pratt, who had met with the commissioners months ago concerning the lighting project that could include lighting mounts on the courthouse’s tower all the way down to ground lights that would flood the sides of the buildings.

Pratt said the toughest part of lighting the top of the building would be finding ways to avoid shadows created by the many corners and eaves near the top of the courthouse.

Both parties agreed the best way to approach lighting the courthouse would be to begin at the top, lighting up the outside of the dome first, and then once they got that where they felt it was best, they would work their way down the courthouse.

“I think it would be better if we started on top,” Pratt said. “We could then phase in the lights as we progress.”

Pratt’s company would only sell the lights to the county, and it would be the responsibility of the county to find a lighting company that could install the lights.

Commissioner Joe Miller said they had already discussed the lighting project with Millersburg Electric, and they would once again go into discussion with MidState, which recently completed a great deal of work on the courthouse.

Pratt said there are many options available to the commissioners that could highly increase the visibility and beauty of the courthouse at night, and the commissioners said this project is important because the courthouse is a highly viewed attraction in the county that draws many people to Millersburg.

While overcoming shadows may produce a challenge for whomever installs the lights, Pratt said there is a bigger issue when it comes to placing lighting around the clocktower.

“The biggest concern is with the copper and the resulting galvanic action that would take place,” Pratt said. “I guarantee you that if we put our lights up there and the standards aren’t separated and protected from the copper, within one month the lights are going to fall off because copper is that acidic to all other metals.”

The easiest solution, according to Pratt, is to mount something other than metal to the copper roof, which would insulate the lighting fixtures from the copper’s acidity.

Pratt said he could work on finding someone who is willing to make a lighting blueprint to present to the commissioners.

He said he had gotten input from EcoSense, and their idea was to place small rise floods they could angle into different position off of one post. That would present an opportunity to be more flexible in defeating some of the shadowing issues by altering beam patterns.

Pratt said he would continue to seek other options and present them to the commissioners.

Tim Morris, Holmes County director of buildings and grounds, said currently the only lighting on top of the courthouse is four spotlights placed on each of the four turrets, with the fencing around each turret causing some lighting issues.

Commissioner Dave Hall suggested utilizing four major floodlights for each wall of the courthouse from the base, but that wouldn’t solve the lighting issue near the top of the building.

Miller said the commissioners want to fund a lighting project that will be top-rate and will do the job, but he said these discussions have been ongoing for some time now and they are ready to get rolling as soon as possible.

The project is estimated to cost somewhere from $30,000-$35,000 for the fixtures, and the current idea of taking things one step at a time and working down the courthouse would mean that once part of the project was completed, it would require viewing the lighting at night and making tweaks to get the lights to where it provided the best lighting.

Morris said there were ample electrical power outlets atop the courthouse that would allow them to create whatever lighting they choose to place there.

“I like the idea of having lights that give us flexibility,” Hall said.

Discussion then centered around the idea of Millersburg Electric doing the inside wiring leading out to the clocktower and having someone like MidState do the outside work.

Another challenging part of lighting the courthouse will be properly lighting Lady Justice, the white statue that adorns the top of the north side of the courthouse.