This is one of the most rewarding projects we ever been part of in our history. The project was considered dead by community members until Mike Cole, a determined youth football commissioner took charge of the process.

Mike reached out to me for some project questions with the basic question of how to drive the cost down. They had been quoted 750k from another sports lighting firm. I explained to Mike that it would be impossible to hit payback in the lifetime of both the fixtures and our children’s lives because the usage was so low. But there was a need particularly in the winter time. They needed a field to practice and play on in the county and there weren’t any fields with lights. So we came up with a simple plan to put some lights on the field.

Light levels and uniformity were disregarded and the ultimate goal became to get lights on the field at the lowest cost possible. So the project formed with 50′ poles, 1500 HID sport lighters with wide optics (type 5) and a tremendous local volunteer effort. A local electrician volunteered to set the poles, run the lines and wire the panels. We ran everything straight to the panel to avoid increased cost with enclosures. And kept integrated ballasts to keep the fixture cost down.

In the end with a superior effort from Travis at Henry County Parks as the Project Coordinator, some volunteer helpers and a great community effort, Henry County Parks has their first football field with lighting. I reworked the design to hit 40 fc avg and maintained uniformity as best as possible with our set back issues.

Ultimately I don’t think 8 year olds care about lighting hot spots… They care about Football.

Total Project Cost 25k