Courthouse clocktower lighting considered
The Holmes County courthouse in Millersburg has received a major facelift over the past year, including a new copper cupola, fixing the eaves and other deteriorated parts and newly painted steps. The next project will be to enhance the lights that will showcase the cupola, clocktower and Lady Justice at night.
Beautification on the Holmes County Courthouse will continue, with the next phase including putting a spectacular nighttime appeal on the clocktower that should make the courthouse a centerpiece visual for anyone coming into Millersburg from any direction.
The Holmes County commissioners met with Dean Anderson of BluShift Wireless to discuss the options available to them in bathing the courthouse clocktower and Lady Justice in lights that will enhance the beauty of the courthouse at night.
Old, historical courthouses are often a draw for tourists who enjoy seeing the many courthouses dotting Ohio’s 88 counties, and the goal of the commissioners is to enhance the beauty of the Holmes County courthouse by illuminating the tower, Lady Justice and inside the clock faces.
The clocktower currently has the ability to light from the four towers surrounding the clocktower, so the electrical capabilities are already in place to further enhance the nighttime visibility of the tower.
“There’s lighting the tower, and then there’s lighting the tower the way it should be,” said commissioner Dave Hall.
BluShift’s Anderson said there are several options to lighting the tower, with an adjustable spot being the best option to increase the opportunity create warmer and cooler lighting options that can be changed from season to season or to fit certain holiday seasons.
“You would be able to alter the temperature of. the light as well as the brightness,” Anderson said. “I would do a control board for all four corners of the tower.”
Anderson said there is variety in the quality of lights, ranging from $150 to $1,500 per light. He said to properly light the tower and Lady Justice it would take no more than six lights to properly light the clocktower.
He suggested going with RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) lights. Anderson said while adding the white into the equation would create a little additional cost, adding the white to would bring out a true white rather than having a mix of the RGB colors create a false white, which he said doesn’t look as clean.
“As long as there’s power, we know there is data connectivity, so it won’t be hard to do,” Anderson said. “The controllers will all work off low frequency so they will be high range, so we won’t have to run a lot of wires.”
One concern with lighting will be working around creating shadows from the iron fencing that surrounds each of the four towers.
He also said low profile lighting would create the prettiest appeal to accent the tower.
The commissioners requested he provide them with several options so they can decipher which route they’d like to pursue.
Anderson said he will get out on the exterior of the tower to gain some understanding of the electrical capabilities currently in place on the tower.
As for lighting the inside of the clocktower in a way that would create the possibility to make each of the four clock faces glow with seasonal colors, Anderson said that would not be difficult to create and easy method to switch from color to color without having to climb into the tower itself.