Clock tower lighting plan moving forward
One of the most photographed sites in Holmes County, the Holmes County Courthouse is a picture of beauty during the day and will have enhanced lighting that will make it even more stunning at night.
The Holmes County Board of Commissioners met Monday, May 6, passing a resolution agreeing to light up the Millersburg Courthouse clock tower with a clock tower lighting design proposal from KLH Engineers in Cincinnati.
The proposal to bring KLH Engineers on board to initiate the design portion of the project is an agreement of $38,500 and has been approved by Holmes County prosecutor Matt Muzik.
The commissioners met with senior lighting designer Matt Minard from KLH on a Zoom meeting several weeks ago to discuss moving forward on the project and were impressed with the company’s resume, which includes many large lighting projects and several historical courthouses.
“We’ve been working on this project a very long time,” commissioner Joe Miller said. ‘We’ve got a beautiful clock tower, and we want it lit up at night. When we decided to do it, we found out that it wasn’t as simple as stringing up a couple of lights, and I think we got a good company.”
Commissioner Dave Hall said KLH has done much of its work in Southwestern Ohio, but the company is proven and well-respected. He said in moving forward with the project, the county wanted to do this right from the beginning.
The team from KLH will provide the county with designs that will light the courthouse clock tower without creating unwanted shadows, with the goal to illuminate the tower and showcase it as one of the premier tourism attractions in the county.
“I’ll bet the courthouse is the most photographed thing in Holmes County,” Miller said.
The lighting scheme will include lighting just the clock tower, but the commissioners noted they remain open to pursuing options of lighting up the entire courthouse building if KLH proposes a quality option to do so.
Hall said once the design is complete, KLH representatives will continue to work with the county in recommending companies to place the lighting. MidState, the company that redesigned the clock tower last year, will be instrumental in properly placing copper boxes to place the lighting.
The project will begin moving forward in the near future.
The commissioners also passed a proclamation declaring May 6-12 as Nurses Week.
The commissioners agreed nurses play a critical role in every community, and whether it is at Pomerene Hospital, nursing homes, the Holmes County Home or other places where nurses are helping people, they have an underappreciated and vital role to play.
Hall said from the moment we are born, nurses are there, and when people are ill and having a rough day at the nursing home, they look up and see the smiling faces of nurses, who are focused on providing not only the best possible healthcare, but also lifting people’s spirits.
Miller quoted the Kipplinger Letter when he said of the nursing field, “Being a nurse is the most appreciated profession in America.”
Hall said watching nurses at a nursing home professionally and compassionately serve his mother was inspiring.
“Those nurses became part of the family,” Hall said. “They are vital in our world today.”