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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

James Winchester has appeared three times before Elizabethton City Council in recent months, seeking to illuminate officials about what he sees as light pollution from security lights installed by Elizabethton Electric Department, but a neighbor was there Thursday night to cast a different light.

Winchester lives with his wife, Toni, at 173 C. Grindstaff Road in Carter County and they addressed council members at the July meeting, maintaining the neighboring Evening Breeze Arena, 239 C. Grindstaff Road, had installed LED commercial lighting leased from the city Electric Department that is so bright as to disturb not just the rural darkness, but their life. Winchester returned to City Council in August to talk about a pamphlet he created on various types of outdoor lighting and lighting fixtures and again complained about the type of outdoor lighting installed by the Electric Department at Evening Breeze Arena.

When he returned Thursday night, Winchester said it was time to talk about the “legal context of what is going on with this security light program.” He read an excerpt from a letter provided to City Council members, saying the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that “a nuisance is a tort — that’s an injury person or property — characterized by interference with the use or enjoyment of the property of another and nuisance is anything that annoys or disturbs the free use of one’s property or that renders the ordinary use or physical occupation uncomfortable.”

Winchester distributed copies of a photo showing a light fixture he said was 250 yards from his house, the illumination of which he said was reaching his garage. “If there is any member of this council who thinks that would not be an aggravation to the property owner, I’d like to hear about it. And because I submit it is obvious that it’s a problem, it needs to go. It’s a light trespass. It’s in violation of the law here, and I think you have a responsibility not only to remove it but stop this program where you’re continuing to create this problem for everybody else in rural Carter County until you’ve got another fixture that won’t do this.”

Neighbor Speaks Out

This time, though, one of Winchester’s neighbors showed up to offer a counter viewpoint, saying county residents have a right to security lights and it’s a matter of a recent transplant trying to enforce their views on the community.

June McPherson, of 239 C. Grindstaff Road, identified herself as the neighbor Winchester was complaining about. “I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a very good speaker, but I will tell you he does not speak for our community. He speaks only for himself,” McPherson said. “All of the other people in our community love having security lights. They feel safe, they feel secure, just as we do.”

McPherson said there has been a security light on the property since 1997 and the light went out sometime in the past year and had been replaced with an LED light. She said there had been no complaints until the Winchesters moved into the neighborhood in 2021.

“From the time they have moved in, they have constantly harassed myself, my mother, my husband, they’ve harassed other people in the community trying to get them to change their lights,” she said, explaining that the Winchesters moved into the area from a gated community in Colorado that had restrictions on what property owners could do with their property. “They’re trying to restrict all of Carter County,” she said.

McPherson said city residents have streetlights that serve as security, but that is not the case with rural areas of the county, explaining that her family has a lot of farm equipment to protect and security lighting is necessary. “The only option we have is the security light,” she said. “What Elizabethton Electric system offers is a very nice light for a very reasonable cost, which is a wonderful thing.”

The C. Grindstaff Road resident likened the situation to a culture war, evoking the fight over the three crosses on Lynn Mountain and the posting of the Ten Commandments, where “somebody comes in from somewhere else and then tries to change us to their culture. That’s what I think is going on here and we’re not happy with it.”

Councilman Richard Barker asked if there were security lights at that location when Winchester moved into the community. “They were existing when he moved in and he knew they were there,” McPherson said. “I know him, I know he would research that. I feel like he moved in thinking that he could make us turn it off.”

McPherson said she is working on a petition regarding the matter that could be brought to the next City Council meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 10.

During the July City Council meeting, Mayor Curt Alexander suggested the issue of lighting and dark skies may be a topic for a future workshop.

The Electric Department has nine types of outdoor LED lighting available for installation and monthly rental. Electric Department Director Brandon Shell said Friday the system has been replacing mercury vapor, high-pressure sodium, and metal halide lights with LED lights as the older lighting fixtures fail.