Keith Yancey, an outdoor lighting expert for the Cambridge-based lighting firm called Lam Partners visited Nantucket on behalf of the dark skies advocacy group Nantucket Lights in September to measure the lighting at schools to determine whether it exceeded the town’s outdoor lighting bylaw.
Yancey concluded late last month that while the Intermediate School was fully compliant and the middle school and high school were mostly compliant, the elementary school violated the bylaw in several ways and was well over the maximum lighting allowed under Nantucket’s bylaw.
“With illuminance levels in some areas 58 times that allowed by the Nantucket Code, not only is this lighting contributing to light pollution and light trespass, it is also resulting in the expenditure of much more on electrical bills than necessary for safety and security,” Yancey said in a press release by Nantucket Lights.
Founder and President of Nantucket Lights Gail Walker sent Yancey’s report and recommendations to the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Elizabeth Hallett and Director of Facilities Diane O’Neil on January 27. She asked them to replace the fixtures that are 4000K or 5000K with fixtures that are 3000K or less.
O’Neil told the Current that they replaced the NES outside lights in June of 2019. She said they match all other outside lighting on the school’s campus and that NES was the last of the outside lighting replacement projects.
“No lights were added except on the back of the (NES) building facing the Ice Rink,” O’Neil said. “We added three lights on that side to light the sidewalk leading to the parking lot. We also removed the 150 watt and 200 watt fixtures and installed 60 watt and 40 watt fixtures.”
O’Neil said when they received complaints about the lighting, the schools responded by lowering the direction of the lights to point towards the ground at a 90 degree angle. She said the schools have also greatly reduced their carbon footprint with this 2019 project and are saving over $3,300 annually, which is a 70 percent reduction from what they were originally paying.
Nantucket Lights said that in order for NES to bring the lighting into compliance, they would need to direct the lights downward; install dimmers or replace some fixtures to reduce the amount of illumination; and replace poles along pedestrian walkways with shorter poles and adjust the brightness level to an acceptable level.
O’Neil said the new lights came to be in order to help teachers and staff be safe.
“For us this was a safety issue,” O’Neil said. “In the colder months many teachers and staff leave the buildings well after dark. They were not feeling safe with the older lights. We are not supposed to shut off any outside lights due to other safety issues.”
But Walker argues that these findings by Yancey may be doing the opposite of keeping people safe. She argues that these results indicate that the lighting is far more than is necessary for safety and security. She said the lighting may even be counterproductive by creating glare and shadows where criminals can hide.
