The folks at Lighting Design Innovations want to give something back to their community, so they are offering to donate hardware, software, lights and wiring to illuminate the cupola atop the Old Courthouse 365 days a year.
Paul Mercier, a partner in the company, told members of the County Legislature about the proposed donation at a meeting of the Public Service Committee earlier this week. The committee voted to accept the donation, which is valued at $7,500.
"For us, the significant aspect of being here is we believe in community," Mercier said.
LDI is a multinational corporation with headquarters in Batavia and an office in Western Canada and clients spread throughout North America, Mercier said. They chose to base the company in Batavia because his partner is from Batavia and they like it here and think it's geographically well placed for their business.
"People often ask why we’re in Batavia and I always say, it’s the best place to be," Mercier said. "It’s the best place to be for business. If you take a string on a map and go 500 miles we hit a great deal of the population and I can tell you that within that 500-mile string, we are working in all of it right now."
Mercier shared a few slides of municipal lighting projects installed by LDI.
Then he presented mock-ups of what the Old Courthouse might look like with illuminated decorative lights.
While LDI is donating just enough equipment to illuminate the copula, it's Mercier's hope that other people in the community will step forward with donations sufficient enough to enable the entire building to be illuminated. As part of his presentation, Mercier showed Photoshopped mock-ups of what the courthouse might look like when fully illuminated.
The lighting system consists of LED lights that can display millions of colors that shine on an object, such as the cupola, with color designs being made by software attached to the lighting system.
Assistant County Manager Matt Landers said the new system will replace a conventional lighting system that is used on special occasions. The electricity cost between the less-efficient system and the new LED system used more frequently will be about the same, Landers said.
Mercier, Landers and county staff did meet one evening recently for a demo lighting of the cupola.
“What I was surprised by that night is how from how far away you can see the cupola," Mercier said. "It is truly a beacon from all directions.”
Once the lighting is installed, which Mercier said is an easy process, he thinks legislators will be eager to see the entire building illuminated.
"You’ll love the way it is, we have no doubt about that, but we think you’ll want to consider a second and third phase that you can celebrate all over again that you’ve illuminated something else on the courthouse," he said.
