A new 400-watt beacon at Allen County Airport is easily seen for miles around on a clear night, as it guides pilots to the landing strip.
It also is a nuisance of Nathan and Sandy Granger, who live half a mile away.
“It lights up the house better than daylight,” said Sandy Granger, of the light that strikes their home every few seconds from dusk to dawn.
The light is atop a 30-foot tower. Initially its beam was horizontal to the ground. A call from the Grangers to Bill King, director of Public Works, got it raised to 7 degrees above parallel. That hasn’t helped much.
The Grangers visited with county commissioners Tuesday morning about the nightly light show.
King, also on hand, was sympathetic, but allowed that because of Federal Aviation Administration regulations, there was little the county could do other than “maybe we can get a variance to raise it up another 3 degrees to 10 degrees.”
A previous light bulb in the beacon was 250 watts and didn’t cause such a problem. King said “the 400-watt bulb is the smallest that’s available now.”
“It’s like Las Vegas with the light flashing into the house all the time,” Nathan Granger said.
Other neighbors, because of the elevation or positioning of their homes, aren’t bothered like the Grangers.
COMMISSIONERS approved use of the Elderly Services van to transport people to downtown Iola for the farmers market and Iola Municipal Band concerts the next three Thursday evenings.
Iola residents will be ferried this Thursday, those from Humboldt on June 23 and Moran residents on June 30. Anyone 55 or older may request a ride by calling 496-9404 or 496-1435. The van will run from 6 to 9 p.m. each of the nights.
If interest is sufficient, the Thursday evening schedule will be continued into July.
Conmat Co., Gardner, had the lower of two bids at $9,425 to stripe the resurfaced portion of old U.S. 169 from the south Humboldt city limit to the Allen-Neosho counties line, a distance of about 4 1/2 miles.
Kelli Kramer, manager of the Allen County Conservation District, asked that the county support the conservation district with $25,000 in 2012, the same amount made available this year. Commissioners said they would consider the request when they put together the county’s 2012 budget.
