The lighting of Chardon Square has been a special occasion in Geuaga County for 33 years.This year's event promises to be extra-special, thanks to a…
The lighting of Chardon Square has been a special occasion in Geuaga County for 33 years.
This year’s event promises to be extra-special, thanks to a project spearheaded by Chardon Square Association, and supported by the family of the late Michele Peace and several Geauga County businesses.
The Geauga County Courthouse will don bright and exciting apparel tonight (12-11) when the crowd gathers around the bandstand for the annual lighting ceremony, said CSA President Tom Bryant.
Over the last few months the brick courthouse, which Bryant calls “One of the most architecturally important buildings in Geauga County,” has been outfitted so it can take pride of place as a jewel in the park. It is more than time for the historical structure, including the clock tower, to be properly garbed in light.
“The courthouse has languished in the darkness at the end of the square,” Bryant said, while residents and passers-through admire Christmas Tree Alley and other outstanding attractions.
Now it is time for the Geauga County Courthouse to shine.
But the lighting system, similar to (but much smaller than) those on Terminal Tower and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, will be gentle and conservative, he said. While the new system can provide a palette of about 1,000 colors, those involved, including judges who hold court there, agreed to keep the beams steady, focused and conservative.
“It’s bright enough to show up the architecture, the cornices, corbels and denticulate at the top,” Bryant said, having witnessed a brief test of the system Saturday evening. “You really see it at night. The windows just pop right out.”
“We want to give immense credit to the family of Michele Peace,” he said, including her husband, David, and sons, Eric and Ben. David came to him last year asking if CSA would accept a donation to complete the project.
“David told me Michele always loved Chardon and Chardon Square,” Bryant said, and felt funding a lighting system for the courthouse would be appropriate, since his wife had been very involved in the community.
In the end, the cost was about $20,000, but would have been double that without the support of NEO Electrical that supplied materials at a discount, GEM Electric that installed the system, Chardon Welding that made the custom brackets and Newbury Sandblasting and Painting that custom painted the brackets, Bryant said. He also credited the county commissioners for allowing the system to be installed, naming current Commissioner Mary Samide and former commissioners Tracy Jemison and Bill Young.
Since all the lights are LED, the cost of lighting up the courthouse from dusk to dawn will be $15 to $18 a month, he said, adding the lights for all the trees were also changed to LED bulbs so the electric bill should be cut by about 80 percent.
Because of the noise of drilling, the work on the courthouse had to be done after the courtrooms and offices closed or on the weekends, which caused its own set of problems, but Bryant expects everyone will appreciate the outcome when they see it tonight.
“This has all been worth it. It really is everything I hoped it would be,” he said.
