A nonprofit’s vision to bathe the falls at Scott Park in glowing amber light is still just that — a vision — but it’s already drawing pointed questions from Easton’s own City Council. Friends of Easton has floated programmable lighting for the waterfall at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, with a preliminary price tag north of $460,000, and at least one council member says the idea will need to clear some hurdles before it ever flips on.
The group presented the conceptual project to Easton City Council on October 27, and according to lehighvalleylive.com, the project is being developed in coordination with the city’s Public Works Department. Friends of Easton intends to fund the projects privately, with no direct cost to the city, the outlet reports. The preliminary cost estimate for the light installation at the falls and additional lighting around the stage and walking trail at Scott Park is more than $460,000, a figure attributed to Ken Greene, the group’s treasurer, who said the early estimate could still shift once professional design and engineering work gets underway.
Councilwoman Julie Zando-Dennis said she supports the broader concept of lighting the falls, but warned the proposal would likely face public scrutiny. She urged Friends of Easton to reduce environmental impacts and raised a pointed contradiction: the group’s own slogan, “Bright Lights, Vibrant Easton,” she said, runs counter to a dark-skies initiative the city’s Environmental Advisory Council is pushing. Residents, the report notes, have already raised concerns about waterfront lighting and its environmental effects.
Dimmers, Curfews and Bird Migration on the Table
Zando-Dennis suggested several ways to soften the plan’s footprint, urging the organization to consider dimmers, limited operating hours and turning lights off on certain weekdays to reduce effects on migratory birds. She specifically floated shutting the lights down during vulnerable migration periods. The proposed lights would run for several hours each night under the current concept, and the installations would be removable in an emergency.
That caution tracks with a growing body of research on artificial light’s effect on birds. According to Audubon, artificial night lighting can powerfully alter animal behavior, attracting, disorienting or disrupting a range of organisms. A study the outlet cites found that Purple Martins exposed to bright artificial light on at least 10 nights before leaving their wintering grounds in Brazil departed — and arrived at their North American breeding grounds — eight days earlier, though the study’s authors and an outside researcher cautioned more research is needed to confirm the cause. Audubon also reports an estimate that roughly 1 billion birds die annually after colliding with buildings in the United States, pointing to artificial light as a central draw.
Zando-Dennis also raised concerns about maintenance of Friends of Easton’s other lighting projects, particularly tree lighting, and urged the group to consult the city forester and maintain future installations appropriately. In response, Friends of Easton said it will return to council with research on environmental effects and possible mitigation measures before moving forward.
Warm Amber Tones Meant to Protect Wildlife
The proposed lighting would use warm, amber tones intended to reduce disruption to wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, per the same lehighvalleylive.com report, rather than broad white spotlights. Diane Haviland, the group’s president, said installations would follow sustainability guidelines designed to avoid disruptive wavelengths and minimize energy use. She added that better lighting can improve the perceived safety, cleanliness and activity of public spaces.
Under the concept, strategically positioned, adjustable, color-changing LED fixtures would be mounted on a wall to project light onto specific areas of the falls, creating imagery on the water rather than a flat wash of illumination. Greene said a lit falls could become a defining image of Easton and draw evening visitors downtown. He also said the project would undergo agency review and post-installation monitoring, with adjustments made as needed.
The falls proposal isn’t happening in a vacuum. Easton’s Environmental Advisory Council has separately proposed a dark-skies initiative to regulate outdoor lighting citywide, and the panel has unanimously voted to send City Council a letter stating its intent to work on such an ordinance, according to Lehigh Valley Public Media. That proposed ordinance may include temperature limits and shield mandates on any new city lighting infrastructure. Separately, LehighValleyNews.com reports the dark-skies push emphasizes directing light downward and using warmer, redder tones in the 2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin range, with the Environmental Advisory Committee urging the board to consider adopting an ordinance that could combat light pollution and improve health for humans and animals alike.
A Nonprofit With a Track Record Downtown
Friends of Easton, founded in 2014, has raised approximately $100,000 for projects throughout Easton, having started with fundraising for the Easton Ambassadors — who maintain downtown areas and assist visitors — before expanding its focus to projects aimed at improving public spaces and encouraging foot traffic. Earlier lighting installations in Centre Square, South Side and the West Ward preceded the group’s focus on the Scott Park falls, the outlet previously reported. The group has also contributed funding elsewhere in the city: Easton’s proposed funding for a Centre Square tree-lighting replacement project includes $10,000 from The Friends of Easton, according to a City of Easton council packet.
The falls idea itself drew inspiration from other illuminated waterfronts, including Niagara Falls and Falls Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Under the concept, Friends of Easton would manage the work in coordination with city staff, cover any cost overruns, and ultimately donate the completed installations to the city under a sustainability agreement. The group plans to obtain professional design and engineering services and put the projects out for bid once funding and necessary approvals are secured, and it has said it expects news about a significant private grant that could help fund the work.
For now, the falls lighting proposal remains conceptual, with environmental research, regulatory discussions, design work and funding all still to be addressed before anything gets installed.
