Energy-efficient lights can be attractive
To the editor,
I applaud Kennebunk’s plan to switch to LED street lights to conserve energy and lessen its carbon footprint. But as the town negotiates with Kennebunk Light & Power over ownership issues and fixture and bulb types, I hope all parties will agree to retain the town’s ornate and dark-sky-friendly radial-wave light fixtures, found on Summer Street and in the historic residential neighborhood adjacent to downtown. These fixtures can easily be retrofitted with LED bulbs.
In the 1990s, I worked with town officials and local astronomer Peter Talmage to find a fixture that would respect Kennebunk’s historic character while protecting the night sky from light pollution. Our choice was Pemco Lighting’s radial-wave fixture, which closely resembled the old radial-waves that had lit the town for nearly a century.
Kennebunkport wisely chose this solution and just finished re-lamping its radial-waves with LED bulbs a few weeks ago. The result: energy-efficient lights that look attractive and old-timey.
Barrett Williams
St. Louis
Does town have the infrastructure?
To the editor,
The town of Kennebunk doubled its size in the last 30 years without any – or much – publicity. Do we want to do that again?
The image of a burning branding iron pushed onto a cow’s rear haunches springs to mind when I try to imagine what all this might mean. Nobody talks about branding as a business decision: it brings money to the town, or tourists, or investment. That’s all well and good, but do we have the infrastructure for that? Many areas of the town – most – don’t have town sewerage, or even town water. We don’t really have much – or any – affordable housing, so where would a sudden influx of middle-class people live if they moved here?
Much of the new housing built here is well beyond the reach of the middle-class home owner. We are lily-white, so how would we attract a more diverse population? Oh, and did I mention that the town of Kennebunk has a population that is aging rapidly, with close to 35 percent of us being 65 years of age or older.
Lots of people seem to come to the town without any special push from branding, so why do we need to spend money to change that?
On the plus side, there are wonderful people living here: I even know a few of them.
If we really want to attract people – what I think this is all about – let’s make it better. Let’s build out affordable housing, renewable energy sources, more age-friendly facilities, a better waterfront area, and lots more infrastructure.
So, keep the branding for cows.
Bevan Davies
Kennebunk
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