Followup: Why West Seattle Stadium’s lights were on overtime

(WSB photo from 9 am Saturday)
If you checked in here this past Saturday – an unusually busy Saturday, news-wise – you might recall the saga of the West Seattle Stadium lights. We started getting messages and comments early Saturday morning from people saying the lights had been left on all night. (Bainbridge and Seattle Prep had played football there on Friday night; a WSB’er who refereed the game says the lights were off when he left.) Neighbors made phone calls; we even talked to a Seattle Parks (which owns the stadium) employee when we stopped by to get the photo above – but despite all that, the lights remained on till around 11 pm Saturday night.

We followed up with Parks on Monday. Joelle Hammerstad from the communications team looked into it, and over the course of the past two days, collected the following information on what happened and what’s being done about it:

First – it appears to have been a mechanical problem, not human error. Hammerstad says the Parks Duty Officer was eventually notified and “sent out an electrician who manually turned off the lights. We aren’t sure exactly what the mechanical problem might be, but we have ordered some new parts and will be working on it this week.” She says the lights at West Seattle Stadium have had mechanical problems before. The responsibility for turning them off/on goes to part-time staff who work on game nights, and, she says, “The person who worked Friday night said he turned them off when he left. … Our assumption is that the lights automatically turned themselves back on after the staff person left.”

The district has a hotline for athletic-field lights – 855-330-8400 – but the stadium is “not under the same system” so the hotline apparently doesn’t cover it, but Parks is making sure that the appropriate notification number IS posted at the stadium.

KatherineL October 9, 2012 (7:19 pm)

Could we get that number published, in case this happens again?

WSB October 9, 2012 (7:54 pm)

By the time I wrote this, I realized that I didn’t have the stadium-specific number in my responses from Parks – so I hope to add that tomorrow. Don’t know if I want to stop by the stadium, lights-free, and poke around it tonight. But I didn’t want to hang up the rest of the followup much longer.

anomie25 October 9, 2012 (7:44 pm)

Mechanical or human error, what’s the difference and who cares? It’s still a problem and they ought to fess up and be transparent and fix the thing!

Bwahahaha October 9, 2012 (7:48 pm)

Twas the WS Stadium Ghost…attention-seeking trickster of Halloweens past.

Boooôooôooooooo!

KT October 9, 2012 (7:54 pm)

“We aren’t sure exactly what the mechanical problem might be, but we have ordered some new parts and will be working on it this week.” Ordered new parts for an unknown problem? Huh?

“Our assumption is that the lights automatically turned themselves back on after the staff person left.”
Really?

Harry Reems October 9, 2012 (7:55 pm)

Thanks for the follow up, good to know.

Cranky Westie October 9, 2012 (8:22 pm)

Sweet God in heaven! My goodness gracious people: It kept us all safe from Al QAEDA attack over the week end didn’t it? Let all be thankful for that. Who knows what COULD have happened. I was just conscious enough to have been in PSYCHIC connection with the TSA, who told me that there could have been trouble in West Seattle without some extra lumens. Be AWAKE! Stay ALIVE! Eat more VEGETABLES!