Dark Skies Projects

We replaced the city-owned street lights of Westcliffe in the fall of 2001. This project was financed through donations solicited from concerned citizens with an interest in preserving the dark-sky heritage of the Wet Mountain Valley.

Another successful project was to replace the parking lot lights at the Custer County School facility. Work began in late July, 2004, and was completed by August 5, 2004. Memorial donations received in Smokey Jack's name were used for this project and when completed, were dedicated in her honor. As the school has expanded, we have financed additional lighting, as needed. In 2005, we paid for a portion of the cost to convert the lighting fixtures of the Round Mountain water treatment ponds north of town. As of spring and summer, 2009 we worked with the Custer County commissioners to convert the courthouse lighting to shielded fixtures and the town of Silver Cliff to erect a test LED type street light for evaluation.

During 2010, we had a difficult project of providing technical advice to a new business in Silver Cliff in response to a number of public complaints in the Wet Mountain Tribune of their harsh exterior lighting. They did respond in a productive manner to our helpful approach. In 2011 and into early 2012, we changed the exterior lights at the Westcliffe Supermarket and at the Sangre de Cristo shop on south Hwy. 69 to shielded fixtures. We also replaced lights and added new ones at the Custer County Shops in north Westcliffe. And finally, we replaced two really troublesome lights in the middle of Westcliffe's residential area.

Following are photos taken in March, 2007 of some of these projects and other dark sky friendly installations in the Westcliffe and Silver Cliff towns:

             
Note: this sign was removed shortly after the photo was taken and replaced with a much smaller and shorter one.