Lancaster might light landmark
LANCASTER — The craggy face of Mount Pleasant rising high above Lancaster might shine at night under a proposal to illuminate the city’s beloved natural landmark.
Nighttime illumination is appropriate for the iconic sandstone bluff in the city of nearly 40,000 residents, said Lou Varga, president of Varga Communications and one of the community leaders who has proposed the idea.
“This mountain is our only authentic connection to the past,” Varga said. “It is not
a building; it’s a piece of nature. It’s phenomenal to think about. This mountain has provided shade for Wyandot Indians, as well as the European pioneers and the people who live in our city now.”
“It’s a cultural icon, a landmark. It makes us different from Newark or Delaware or London or Marysville. We have a mountain. Let’s honor it.”
The Lancaster Board of Park Commissioners has scheduled a community meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the city’s Olivedale Senior Center, 253 Boving Road, to hear from the public.
Plans call for using private funds to install the lighting and equipment, and public funds to pay ongoing electricity costs.
Varga has discussed preliminary plans with Claypool Electric Inc. of Lancaster and Lighting Systems of Columbus, based in Lewis Center, to come up with cost estimates.
Arrays of time-programmable LED lights would be mounted facing Mount Pleasant from atop two 60-foot poles placed behind the park superintendent’s house on the grounds of Rising Park, the city park just north of downtown Lancaster that spreads beneath the nearly 300-foot bluff.
The cost to buy and install only white lights and train park workers in using them would range from $40,000 to $50,000, Varga said, and the cost for white plus color options would range from $75,000 to $85,000.
“We could light the mountain red, white and blue for the Fourth of July. Why not?” he said, noting that the city’s annual fireworks display is launched from Mount Pleasant.
The city park system would pay for the electricity, which is estimated at $970 a year to illuminate the bluff in color for up to 12 hours every day, and $600 if in white only. But the cost would be much lower because no one anticipates running the lighting for that long or even each night, Varga said. The schedule would be up to the park board.
The park system operates on a $2.1 million annual budget, including $1.6 million generated by a 0.15 percent income tax that voters renewed in May. The rest comes from the city’s general-fund budget, lodge rentals and fundraising by the nonprofit Friends of the Lancaster Parks and Recreation.
Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea to illuminate Mount Pleasant. Resident Fred Strawser said he prefers that the mountain be left alone in its natural splendor.
“Quite frankly, while I think the intention is good, I can foresee it could be abused by lighting it too often and too long,” Strawser said.
Republican David Scheffler and Democrat Greg Russell, who are running for mayor in November, both like the idea.
“It’s certainly a tourist attraction in Lancaster,” said Scheffler, who is executive director of Destination Downtown Lancaster, “and having it lit at night could bring more people in to see it, which would be good for restaurants and other retailers that are open late.”
“I’m in favor of it,” said Russell, who is managing partner of Tiki Bowling Lanes. “I hear a lot of people at the bowling alley talking about it. They want to hear more.”
“I don’t have an opinion on the aesthetics of it,” said Lancaster Police Chief Adam Pillar, but he added that illumination could keep people off the face of the mountain. Rising Park closes at dusk, but that doesn’t keep people away.
“It’s not uncommon to find people up there at night,” Pillar said.
In fact, he said, he chased off two teenage girls who were climbing the mountain face one spring day this year. The girls told him they were from out of town and had learned of Mount Pleasant online.
A steep path leads to the summit, which has a rail. Other areas do not, including an area called Devil’s Kitchen where there have been falls. An 11-year-old girl died in 2012 after she slipped and fell about 40 feet from a ledge, and a 30-yearold man was injured in 2015 after he fell about 15 feet from a rock.
Varga has not started fundraising, pending approval from the park board. The park superintendent has said he likes the idea, but the three-member board has not weighed in.
“The board needs to hear what the community thinks,” Varga said.