Action line 81006 - Track lights Published Oct. 27, 2008 By Anonymous 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- Complaint: Who is responsible for turning the lights at the track behind the school off and on? I live close to the track and the lights shine into our house at night and cause problems for me trying to sleep. Not only do the lights shine in the house but they attract the birds that then make a tremendous amount of noise. I know that people use the track at night as well as in the morning, but there have been numerous times I have woken up at 2 a.m. and the lights were on at the track. This seems like a tremendous waste of money to leave the lights burning all night long. Is there a point of contact who is responsible for turning the off and on and if not what is the possibility of having one established. Response: Great question and your right, lights on at 2 a.m. is a waste of energy. To answer your question, the area lighting system around the track and field is the responsibility of our Civil Engineer Squadron. There is actually a pretty interesting control system in place to ensure the lights are only energized when needed within certain hours, 1730-2300 and 0500 -0700. Why were the lights shining when you looked out your window at 0200? The system utilizes an electronic clock to know when a user can energize the lights. Power outages cause this clock to stop keeping time. The clock resumes once power is restored causing the system to be out of sync with the actual time. When this occurs, the control system allows a person to activate the lights outside the prescribed hours. There is a step in our post power outage checklists to reset the clock; but, it appears the action may have been missed. What can you do to help? If you see the lights on after 2300 or before 0500, please call the 24 hour Civil Engineer service call desk at 676-7008. They will dispatch an electrician who can turn-off the lights immediately. Thanks for your interest in saving energy.