Sounds like double talk.

Keep Sedona Beautiful is very excited that Sedona has been named the 6th International Dark-Sky Community in the US and the 8th in the world! We thank the community for their support in pursuing this well-deserved designation from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

In the August 6 edition of the Red Rock News, Sedona Councilwoman Barbara Litrell was quoted, “On one hand we don’t meet the criteria [for a Dark-Sky Community designation by the IDA] and on the other hand we don’t deserve it.” Fortunately, it is the IDA who determines whether Sedona meets the stringent requirements to be named a Dark-Sky Community and it is the IDA who determines whether Sedona deserves it.

To set the record straight: the IDA did not lower its standards when it designated Sedona as a Dark-Sky Community. In fact, Sedona was held to a higher standard than the Dark-Sky Communities designated before because the IDA raised the bar specifically for Sedona, not for any other applicant for the Dark-Sky Community designation before Sedona’s.

The additional IDA outdoor lighting requirements levied on the City were met when two new lighting policies were adopted by the City Council on June 24, 2014. With this, the IDA determined Sedona had passed the higher-bar hurdle and granted Sedona the Dark-Sky Community designation.

And from now on, all applicants for the Dark-Sky Community designation by the IDA will be held to that higher standard. Sedona’s successful efforts for earning the designation thus set the bar higher than it was before, and as a result will make all future Dark-Sky Communities even better.

This designation calls for celebration by all who proclaim to care for Sedona’s dark sky, and for working together to preserve dark skies for future generations.

If you need further verification of the Sedona Dark-Sky Community designation, please contact John Barentine at the IDA office in Tucson, John@darksky.org.

Joanne Kendrick
Chair, KSB Dark-Sky Committee

Your sister community, Big Park, has much darker skies and we will be designated very soon.

It is a win for all in both communities, maybe reign in ideas like lighting the rocks with neon and spotlights.

That will not happen in Big Park.

Yes, I heard that when a new group of people were voted onto the IDA recently, they lowered the standards needed to qualify.

Don’t you people go to the seashore? The mountains in Colorado or Utah or other places in Arizona? The rolling plains of the midwest? See neon lights there for evening attractions?

What is wrong with these people in that city, in that chamber?

The IDA’s board had to change and reduced their standards for this to happen so let me ask; did we really earn this distinction?

BTW, I was on the side of having the lights and not owning the road.

Remember Sedona your hold on nature is fragile and finite.