Town Council Meeting
Monday, March 12, 7 p.m.
Charlestown Elementary School
Some Agenda Items:
- Public Hearing on the Lighting Ordinance - which has been discussed at several public meetings
- Current Zoning Ordinance has lighting requirements similar to the new ordinance, but they do not apply to existing fixtures or to all situations.
- Many businesses in town are already in compliance with the ordinance
- Buildings that replace fixtures that light up the sky will be required to use shielded fixtures to put light only where it is needed and not into the sky.
- Single family homes and temporary lighting are exempt from the ordinance
Home Town Hero Award
Smoking Ban on the Beaches
Motions:
- to take a new look at updating the Ninigret Park Master Plan that would provide more up to date financial information and be used in conjunction with the Town’s Five Year Capital Improvement Plan.
- to implement a new memorandum of understanding with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US National Park Service to reestablish the Town’s commitments to fulfilling our legal obligations under the Land Transfer Agreement concerning Ninigret Park.
Please elaborate. Just what is the land transfer agreement with National Parks in relation to Ninigret Park?
What is at stake?
If thy are similar, why replace them? Why can’t we see the new proposal? What We are told, may or may not be what is actually written. I want to read the actual proposed law, not hear what it may or may not contain. “This is not a church, we don’t need a leap of faith.” What about the town fixtures? There is a streetlight that shines right into my bedroom. A simple shield would alleviate much of the “scattered” light. Heal thyself seems to be in order first here in many areas. What is wrong with the old master plan for Ninigret Park. If there are problems, why wasn’t it brought forth? If the present “upgrades” are being done in conjunction with, and within present budgetary allowances, where is the problem? If it is to be a capital expenditure, it would have to be addressed long before it was implemented. Who is to “negotiate the new memorandum of understanding? It should not be just Frosty Drew and the Planning commission.
The proposed ordinance is posted at the town web site and has been there since early January. The Town Council may make changes to proposed ordinances as part of the public hearing process. That is the purpose of a public hearing, to get more input and make changes if desired. If the changes are deemed to be significant, the changes are re-advertised and the hearing is continued to the next month. As it is proposed and advertised, the town is not exempt from the ordinance. Single family homes and temporary lighting are the only proposed exemptions.
We’ll report the rest of the meeting after tonight when we have more details.
Opposition to a lighting ordinance completely baffles me! The dark sky is a NATURAL resource that we have and should be protecting. I equate this to “Save the Bay”. Can you imagine if the state came forward nowadays and said they wanted everyone to stop dumping and polluting the bay and the people stood up and shouted “NO! We want to pollute the Bay! We will not stop and we will make everyone know we will not stop and we oppose saving the Bay!”
We would think they were crazy and unreasonable people. Who in their right mind would want to intentionally pollute the Bay right? Well, who would want to intentionally pollute the night sky here in Charlestown? Everyone who stands up at the podium tonight in opposition is saying exactly that.
This ordinance is not drastic and non-intrusive. We as a town are asking to be considerate of the natural resource we have. How can that be bad? This isn’t about homes or neighborhoods. I would like everyone who stands up in opposition to identify the BUSINESS they own and the EXACT lighting they are concerned with and NOT just stand up in general opposition, like many people do. If we only heard from people this would actually affect I bet there would be 5 or 6 issues. No more. This should not be such a big deal. We are asking people to use common sense when installing lights and if they have the wrong lights now, to use common sense when replacing them.
The real problem is this lighting of fields in the worst possible place in town: Ninigret Park. Somehow, we have made it this far as a town, with kids playing football, without lights there. What happened all of a sudden that we now NEED lights there? I can tell you: nothing. The parks and rec director doesn’t have the same agenda for the town as the people who live here. Simple as that. We had to vote on beach structures, let’s vote on lighted fields in the worst possible place and the people will have their say.
We will not see an increase in kids heading into the NFL from Charlestown because of lights and any parent who thinks that should not have a voice in this. Any parent of athletes knows that talent is talent. You don’t have to play baseball from age 3 to be good at it. You play at age 3 because it’s fun. We all know someone who didn’t play a single sport until high school and then became a superstar because they possess talent. If you think you need to have your kids on the football field at night after dark so they can get “better”, you are mistaken.
I would like to also remind everyone that we have a perfectly fine football field directly behind town hall. Why not light that without opposition? If it’s a lit field they want they can certainly have that. Now, the argument will be made that the town doesn’t own ALL of that field and can’t spend money to install lights there. Hogwash! We spend money to cut it, fertilize it, pay for the fuel for mowers, pay for maintenance on mowers, pay for the actual mowers, pay the guy who cuts it, pay his health insurance, pay his workers comp insurance, pay for paint for the lines, pay someone to paint the lines…..it goes on and on. Thousands of dollars to maintain the field the town doesn’t completely own but no way we can even consider lights there??? What?
We have made it this far without 70 foot lights in Ninigret Park. Anyone who wants that can also go dump their old paint in the Bay. No difference in my opinion. A natural resource is a natural resource and should be protected.
It’s interesting how people hear different messages coming from the same set of words. Maybe that’s why politics is such an odd filter to use when you are looking for the truth. You can’t read an account of a meeting; you really have to be there. For example last night’s Town Council meeting is a good example of this.
Being Lent, there was a description of Charlestown’s idea of an Easter Egg Hunt. Finding Canada goose eggs is not a Zen Koan, because when you find goose eggs you oil them up not paint them up. Actually, the hunt for Canada goose eggs will improve the water quality in our coastal ponds and runoff pollution rates. The situation has gotten to the point where our ponds are being degraded beyond acceptable levels.
So later, under the subject dark skies/lighting ordinance, the question of the timing of and need for the lighting ordinance was raised. If the skies of Charlestown are so dark, why do we have to have a lighting ordinance? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, as the goose problem was allowed to reach critical mass, the town doesn’t want light pollution to reach critical mass. A little planning goes a long way. It seems just about everyone, even the petition signers, like the dark skies. However, commercial business owners want the town to use taxpayer money to guarantee that lighting changes over time will be subsidized.
Forester Safford doesn’t understand how photos of heavenly bodies (not Playboy photos) are taken. He needs to understand the role of filters, exposure time, and telescopic lenses. He may have heard of the Hubble Telescope, but may not understand why it operates beyond earth’s atmosphere.
Ron Areglado didn’t seem so angry about wind turbines, although that was the spark that set off his comments at the meeting. It seems to me that he was more upset about the lack of communication between the Town Administrator and the Town Council that resulted in wasted taxpayer money for data that was not to be used by the town. It was also that this miscommunication led to the whole sports lighting issue for Ninigret Park. Ron could not understand how the Town Administrator did not pass on this information. He said we wasted a lot of time and energy on the wind turbine issue, but here I disagree. We learned a lot about how this town operates and who to keep an eye on and who you can trust.
By 10:30, my interest was waning. So few people were left at the meeting by that time, I imagine I wasn’t the only person that was just tired.