After the gym opened at the new county complex, it became apparent that the low hanging light fixtures from the ceiling might pose a problem. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before broken light fixtures became a frequent occurrence from basketball play in the gym.
In order to address the problem, County Mayor Mike Foster said a decision was made to replace the original light fixtures with newer ones closer to the ceiling. For the last several weeks, the gym has been closed to the public until the renovation could be done. With the work now finished, Foster said the gym is expected to re-open by Friday or Monday. “The people who did the remodeling of the whole building, when they put the lights in they put them underneath the trusses,” said Foster. “The ceiling is a little bit low and we all questioned (at the time of installation) the way they had the lights. But when people were in there playing, within one night they broke three lights. Part of it is because they tried to shoot from mid court and then they bounced some balls high enough and hard enough that they went up and broke the lens. We closed the gym because we were just afraid that some of the glass shards were going to fall down and cut somebody,” he said.
“We contacted the same company (who did the original work) and they ordered some more lights with different guards on them,” said Foster. “It took us a while to get them (new light fixtures) and it took them (company) a while to get time to come and do it. They moved the lights up against the ceiling, against the roof to the point that they will be harder to hit and then they have guards on them too so we feel a lot better about them now. They worked on them part of last week and this week, so they have them all in now and we’re ready to let people back in there. Hopefully we’re ready to go,” he said.
Surveillance cameras will also be installed to guard against vandalism. “We’re hopefully going to get cameras in there right away so we can watch to make sure that they are not deliberately trying to do it (break the lights). I don’t think anybody was. It just happened. But unless they are deliberately trying to do it, I don’t think it will be likely now,” said Foster.
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