LAKE COUNTY — For more than 40 years atop Mount Konocti”s Buckingham Peak, a rotating red-and-white light was a familiar nighttime landmark for locals and pilots flying overhead. Then the light disappeared last summer.
The owners and operators of the light, Lake County Television, shut it off due to increases in their utility bills. “We did not feel it was fair to add the costs of additional utilities on the backs of our viewers,” LCTV”s board president David Jolliffe said in a press release.
The beacon was first placed on top of LCTV”s 270-foot tower in 1962 to satisfy FAA regulations that require any tower over 200 feet to be lighted. That tower blew down the next year in a winter storm and was replaced by a 120-foot tower. LCTV continued to operate it as a courtesy to the burgeoning air traffic in the area. The beacon let pilots know beyond a doubt that they were viewing Mount Konocti because of its distinctive red-and-white blinking lights an unrecognized signal in aviation, according to Jolliffe. “They either have a red on-and-off light or a green light. I think it was actually a mistake. They put up the light, realized it was red-and-white and said “oops,” but decided they liked it and kept it,” said Jolliffe.
The light also was used by the Lake County Sheriff Boat Patrol as a guide to start notifying water skiers on Clear Lake that it was getting too dark to continue their sport. The light would turn on when a photo-cell was activated by fading sunlight, according to Jolliffe.
The owner of the property the tower sits on is Mike Fowler, a longtime rancher in Lake County. “I think LCTV kept it on for years after they had to out of tradition, because people really liked seeing it blinking up there,” said Fowler.
The light was out for about two months in the summer before the California Department of Forestry, which operates a cell tower on the taller, neighboring White Peak, called LCTV, according to Jolliffe. The station also received calls from the public and The Lake County Record-Bee received many phone calls and a letter to the editor in late November from a reader wondering what had happened to the light.
Jolliffe said that the LCTV board has approached the Lake County Airmen”s Asso-ciation about help with funding for the beacon and thinks it is promising that the light will one day return. “I believe that the airmen are pretty resourceful people after all they have planes and hangers. I”m surprised I haven”t heard back from them, they might be able to come through on getting the light back on,” said Jolliffe.
Prior to 1995, the light was paid for in part by the County of Lake until the Board of Supervisors voted to end their support.
Jolliffe is looking forward to getting back into his routine of climbing the tower to service the lights” rotating motor and replace the 1,000-watt bulbs. “It”s a rush climbing up there. Sometimes the tower sways back and forth 3 or 4 feet when it”s windy,” said Jolliffe.
