This past Sunday Greg and I put all our outside Christmas lights up - it was a beautiful day, in the 60's, and rather than see Greg perish as he put them up in cold ice and snow. . . we put them up on this fabulous day.
He did all the roof lights - we choose big, multi-colored bulbs to line every single eave - and I did the 4 little trees in our yard. He bought roof clips to attach the bulbs to the gutter just perfectly, and rather than using them every foot or so as a normal person would do - he used 1 clip per light so that each bulb would stand up perfectly. (That's the difference between a normal person and a perfectionist)
At the end our house looks like a little rainbow porcupine, and the lights are perfect and precise, by God. Last night we got home from work, changed into our pajamas, and bundled up to see how beautiful our home was lit up. Greg flipped the switch with a relish, and came out to join me in the street.
And it was at the exact moment that he turned around to behold his creation, that creation played a dirty trick. There, on the right hand side of the foremost eave. . . a blue bulb winked out defiantly.
So we got in early to work today so Greg can change the bulb before it gets dark tonight. A perfectionist's job is never done.
11.21.2006
And thus ended the tower light fiasco. . .
There you have it, all the letters.
The tower lights now blink meekly in the field behind us, everything seems to be working correctly - lights, bulbs, switches, and once again there is peace in the land.
The tower lights now blink meekly in the field behind us, everything seems to be working correctly - lights, bulbs, switches, and once again there is peace in the land.
And the final letter - where all was fixed (Letter 8)
Dear Greg,
Thank you for the heads up concerning the tower lighting. It seems that there are now a couple of flash heads that are significantly brighter than the rest, even at night. These flash heads have new transformers which cause the units to burn a bit brighter, but even so the ones in question are excessively bright. I have a tower crew on site today to test for proper switching of the day and night intensity. They are also going to climb and further investigate the flash heads in question.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. I will update you all when I receive more information. Thank you for your understanding!
Jack
Thank you for the heads up concerning the tower lighting. It seems that there are now a couple of flash heads that are significantly brighter than the rest, even at night. These flash heads have new transformers which cause the units to burn a bit brighter, but even so the ones in question are excessively bright. I have a tower crew on site today to test for proper switching of the day and night intensity. They are also going to climb and further investigate the flash heads in question.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. I will update you all when I receive more information. Thank you for your understanding!
Jack
And even though we thought it was fixed. . .it wasn't . . .and Greg wrote another Letter. . . (Letter 7)
Dear Mr. Clear Channel Guy,
My name is Greg, and I am a citizen with frontage to your tower, here in Weld County. I really appreciate you responding so quickly to our concerns with your tower.
I assume that the tower equipment has been replaced by now, and this is why I am writing. In the past, with the old equipment, as well as when you were having crews dim the towers manually, the lighting was bearable and comfortable at night. With the new equipment, that I am assuming has been replaced, the lighting is not as bright as it was when the equipment was malfunctioning, but it is still much brighter than it used to be. Now, I don’t want to be a bother to you and your crews, but is it possible for you to send a crew out at night this week to check and lower the brightness level? It is quite bright now at night, and its penetrating our bedroom blinds again, which can make for difficult sleeping conditions. It is also difficult to be in our backyard again at night, since the flashing lights tend to put spots in our vision. When the lighting is dim, as it was in the past, this was not a concern.
I appreciate your time concerning this, and thank you for your response,
Sincerely,
Greg
My name is Greg, and I am a citizen with frontage to your tower, here in Weld County. I really appreciate you responding so quickly to our concerns with your tower.
I assume that the tower equipment has been replaced by now, and this is why I am writing. In the past, with the old equipment, as well as when you were having crews dim the towers manually, the lighting was bearable and comfortable at night. With the new equipment, that I am assuming has been replaced, the lighting is not as bright as it was when the equipment was malfunctioning, but it is still much brighter than it used to be. Now, I don’t want to be a bother to you and your crews, but is it possible for you to send a crew out at night this week to check and lower the brightness level? It is quite bright now at night, and its penetrating our bedroom blinds again, which can make for difficult sleeping conditions. It is also difficult to be in our backyard again at night, since the flashing lights tend to put spots in our vision. When the lighting is dim, as it was in the past, this was not a concern.
I appreciate your time concerning this, and thank you for your response,
Sincerely,
Greg
To which Clear Channel Replied. . .(Letter 6)
Dear Mr. Mayor,
I regret the tower light malfunction, and the hardship it has caused. I have assigned a station engineer to be on site tonight and tomorrow morning to manually switch our tower lights to night pattern and back. This will continue until repairs are made, probably in the next day or two.
The failure was in a custom dual photocell module. The parts are proprietary to the system and difficult to procure. We are in the midst of replacing our entire tower strobe lighting system with a state of the art Flash Technology System. The new system controller is much more reliable, and will remotely notify us when the pattern doesn't switch. This project will be complete by year's end.
Please refer your future concerns directly to me, and I will make sure they are addressed.
Sincerely,
Jack
I regret the tower light malfunction, and the hardship it has caused. I have assigned a station engineer to be on site tonight and tomorrow morning to manually switch our tower lights to night pattern and back. This will continue until repairs are made, probably in the next day or two.
The failure was in a custom dual photocell module. The parts are proprietary to the system and difficult to procure. We are in the midst of replacing our entire tower strobe lighting system with a state of the art Flash Technology System. The new system controller is much more reliable, and will remotely notify us when the pattern doesn't switch. This project will be complete by year's end.
Please refer your future concerns directly to me, and I will make sure they are addressed.
Sincerely,
Jack
11.08.2006
Even I got in on the action. . .(Letter #5)
Thursday night we had gone to bed with the lights flashing brightly, and Thursday morning at about 2:30am Greg, (who has been focusing much energy on this whole lights thing) nudges me on the shoulder to wake me up.
"Christa?" he says.
I make a non-commital noise in reply.
"Am I dreaming, or are the lights a bit dimmer?"
And it was at that point that I decided something needed to be done about these lights as me waking up every few hours or so with Greg to judge the latest brightness wouldn't be helpful for my work career.
Or, for that matter, our marriage. So I wrote this letter to Clear Channel Communications after being given the run-around on their phone system as I tried to lodge a complaint:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to complain about the flashing lights just east of my home in Savannah subdivision in Frederick, Colorado. Since these lights have been changed a little over a week or so ago; their bright, strobe-like lights are keeping my husband and me awake at night as the light penetrates through our blinds and curtains. It is completely ridiculous how bright these lights are at night, and we've been forced to sleep in our guest bedroom on the western side of the house on workday nights to escape the 'disco fever' atmosphere created in our bedroom by this tower.
I would request that you do something about this immediately. I can't imagine that this is zone-compliant considering how close this tower is to residential property. The sooner these lights go back to being normal in the evening, the sooner I can sleep in my bedroom. If this were in your backyard, you'd be pretty inconvenienced as well.
Additionally, I tried to lodge a complaint via telephone, but was given the run-around twice by your automated voice system before being hung-up on. That is also ridiculous. I would suggest you change that system to be more customer-friendly for complaints that need to be lodged about your electronics.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Christa
"Christa?" he says.
I make a non-commital noise in reply.
"Am I dreaming, or are the lights a bit dimmer?"
And it was at that point that I decided something needed to be done about these lights as me waking up every few hours or so with Greg to judge the latest brightness wouldn't be helpful for my work career.
Or, for that matter, our marriage. So I wrote this letter to Clear Channel Communications after being given the run-around on their phone system as I tried to lodge a complaint:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to complain about the flashing lights just east of my home in Savannah subdivision in Frederick, Colorado. Since these lights have been changed a little over a week or so ago; their bright, strobe-like lights are keeping my husband and me awake at night as the light penetrates through our blinds and curtains. It is completely ridiculous how bright these lights are at night, and we've been forced to sleep in our guest bedroom on the western side of the house on workday nights to escape the 'disco fever' atmosphere created in our bedroom by this tower.
I would request that you do something about this immediately. I can't imagine that this is zone-compliant considering how close this tower is to residential property. The sooner these lights go back to being normal in the evening, the sooner I can sleep in my bedroom. If this were in your backyard, you'd be pretty inconvenienced as well.
Additionally, I tried to lodge a complaint via telephone, but was given the run-around twice by your automated voice system before being hung-up on. That is also ridiculous. I would suggest you change that system to be more customer-friendly for complaints that need to be lodged about your electronics.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Christa
To which Greg, somewhat appeased, replied. . .(Letter #4)
I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for getting back to me.
They are pretty obnoxious. You think Flatirons is bad, I saw it from Surrey Ridge coming into South Denver on Saturday night. I was blown away.
I appreciate you and the town working towards a solution. That’s all I am looking for.
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I appreciate your attention in this matter.
Greg
They are pretty obnoxious. You think Flatirons is bad, I saw it from Surrey Ridge coming into South Denver on Saturday night. I was blown away.
I appreciate you and the town working towards a solution. That’s all I am looking for.
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I appreciate your attention in this matter.
Greg
To which the mayor replied. . .(Letter #3)
Greg,
I am sorry that you have felt that we are not responding appropriately. We have been told that the FCC is the body that should be contacted. I know staff is working on other angles to this problem. I too am bothered by it and observed the towers at Flatirons Mall on Friday night. I agree this is unacceptable and is a community issue as does the staff.
We will continue to look at how I and the town can respond and get help with this. I thank you for your interest and I will be in touch with you once I know more.
Eric E. Doering
Mayor, Frederick, Colorado
I am sorry that you have felt that we are not responding appropriately. We have been told that the FCC is the body that should be contacted. I know staff is working on other angles to this problem. I too am bothered by it and observed the towers at Flatirons Mall on Friday night. I agree this is unacceptable and is a community issue as does the staff.
We will continue to look at how I and the town can respond and get help with this. I thank you for your interest and I will be in touch with you once I know more.
Eric E. Doering
Mayor, Frederick, Colorado
Letter #2 to the Mayor of our Town (Oct. 30th)
Greg wrote this after he saw a link on the town website about the towers that stated:
"The bright white strobe-like lights on the southern radio tower (located to the east of Frederick) have been the cause of many citizen complaints in Frederick and the surrounding areas. Town officials have contacted the Weld County Planning Department and several area communications companies regarding the problem, and all complaints should be directed to Clear Channel Communications, which owns the tower. The Town of Frederick is not responsible for the towers and has no control over their operation."
Which apparently, Greg didn't like. Thus this letter, to our mayor:
Subject: Flashing South Tower East of Town / Concerned Citizen of Savannah Subdivision - Please Help Us -
Hello Mayor Doering,
I am writing you today with great concern regarding the flashing towers east of town. I myself, being a resident of the Savannah Subdivision, east of CR15 and North of Hwy52, am fully impacted by these lights. Not only is this a huge intrusive nuisance to my home, homes of my neighbors, and my ability to sleep, It is now becoming a safety issue in our neighborhood as Halloween approaches, as you lose all nighttime vision when driving eastbound through the subdivision. I fear that if these lights are not detuned quickly, that a child will be struck, as this is a neighborhood full of children.
The note on the website that the town of Frederick is shrugging off the responsibility of these towers to the FCC is completely inappropriate, since our town and its citizens are DIRECTLY and NEGATIVELY impacted by these towers. Regardless of where the towers lie in regard to town limits, the town should be concerned with the well-being, and safety of all of its citizens. Please get involved with this issue, and use any and all influence that the town has in order to get this remedied quickly. There are many residents in Savannah that are counting on you.
I appreciate your time. Thank you
Greg
"The bright white strobe-like lights on the southern radio tower (located to the east of Frederick) have been the cause of many citizen complaints in Frederick and the surrounding areas. Town officials have contacted the Weld County Planning Department and several area communications companies regarding the problem, and all complaints should be directed to Clear Channel Communications, which owns the tower. The Town of Frederick is not responsible for the towers and has no control over their operation."
Which apparently, Greg didn't like. Thus this letter, to our mayor:
Subject: Flashing South Tower East of Town / Concerned Citizen of Savannah Subdivision - Please Help Us -
Hello Mayor Doering,
I am writing you today with great concern regarding the flashing towers east of town. I myself, being a resident of the Savannah Subdivision, east of CR15 and North of Hwy52, am fully impacted by these lights. Not only is this a huge intrusive nuisance to my home, homes of my neighbors, and my ability to sleep, It is now becoming a safety issue in our neighborhood as Halloween approaches, as you lose all nighttime vision when driving eastbound through the subdivision. I fear that if these lights are not detuned quickly, that a child will be struck, as this is a neighborhood full of children.
The note on the website that the town of Frederick is shrugging off the responsibility of these towers to the FCC is completely inappropriate, since our town and its citizens are DIRECTLY and NEGATIVELY impacted by these towers. Regardless of where the towers lie in regard to town limits, the town should be concerned with the well-being, and safety of all of its citizens. Please get involved with this issue, and use any and all influence that the town has in order to get this remedied quickly. There are many residents in Savannah that are counting on you.
I appreciate your time. Thank you
Greg
Letter #1 to ClearChannel Communications (Oct. 30th)
Clear Channel Tower at 6800 WCR 17 near the Intersection of WCR16 in Weld County Colorado - EXTREMELY BRIGHT LIGHTS - Safety Hazard & Nuisance
Good morning,
I am writing today to complain about the new lighting configuration that began Sunday, Oct 22, 2006. The south tower at this site, Clear Channel Communications, has been changed, and is now EXTREMELY bright day and night. This tower has become more than a nuisance, and is now a safety hazard. It is now difficult to drive eastbound on many different EB routes, including Colorado Highway 52, Main Street, Frederick, Colorado (5th Street), and many smaller residential roads. The tower lights are so bright that you lose visibility as your eyes cannot adequately adjust for nighttime driving. Safety for children in the area as well as wildlife and pedestrians is now a concern, especially with the onset of the holidays (Halloween). These lights need to be returned to their previous brightness ASAP before somebody gets hit.
For the neighborhoods that surround these towers, life has also become difficult. Sleeping with bright lights flashing all night is extremely difficult. It is painful to be outside in the evenings, as the brightness of these flashing white lights is extreme and dramatic. Please take action as soon as you can to remedy this situation, and have this tower repaired.
Please feel free to contact me regarding this issue. It is of the utmost importance to me, since I am directly impacted in a negative manner regarding this tower.
Greg
Good morning,
I am writing today to complain about the new lighting configuration that began Sunday, Oct 22, 2006. The south tower at this site, Clear Channel Communications, has been changed, and is now EXTREMELY bright day and night. This tower has become more than a nuisance, and is now a safety hazard. It is now difficult to drive eastbound on many different EB routes, including Colorado Highway 52, Main Street, Frederick, Colorado (5th Street), and many smaller residential roads. The tower lights are so bright that you lose visibility as your eyes cannot adequately adjust for nighttime driving. Safety for children in the area as well as wildlife and pedestrians is now a concern, especially with the onset of the holidays (Halloween). These lights need to be returned to their previous brightness ASAP before somebody gets hit.
For the neighborhoods that surround these towers, life has also become difficult. Sleeping with bright lights flashing all night is extremely difficult. It is painful to be outside in the evenings, as the brightness of these flashing white lights is extreme and dramatic. Please take action as soon as you can to remedy this situation, and have this tower repaired.
Please feel free to contact me regarding this issue. It is of the utmost importance to me, since I am directly impacted in a negative manner regarding this tower.
Greg
Explanation of Tower letters to be posted...
Recently, one of the large radio towers in the field behind our house had its light bulbs changed and its system updated. This would have been fine except the new bulbs are about 1,000 times brighter than the previous bulbs and they were cranked up all the way day and night.
It's hard to exaggerate how bright this made our neighborhood. Visualize lightning striking in the black of night every second or so and I suppose that's the closest picture I can paint you. It was aggravating, and though it bothered me. . .it nearly drove my husband insane.
What follows is the series of letters written from Greg to various officials as he tries desperately to get this fixed. . . and get some sleep. Because they are comical on their own, I'll post them, one at a time with little to no introduction.
Enjoy!
It's hard to exaggerate how bright this made our neighborhood. Visualize lightning striking in the black of night every second or so and I suppose that's the closest picture I can paint you. It was aggravating, and though it bothered me. . .it nearly drove my husband insane.
What follows is the series of letters written from Greg to various officials as he tries desperately to get this fixed. . . and get some sleep. Because they are comical on their own, I'll post them, one at a time with little to no introduction.
Enjoy!
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