Do strobe lights have a place in East Dundee?

Strobe lights may be better suited to dance clubs than to East Dundee businesses.

Monday, the village board will consider adding language to a nuisance ordinance that would make it illegal for businesses to use strobe lights as a means to attract attention. Trustees Rob Gorman and Paul Van Ostenbridge say this is an inappropriate use for the lighting.

“To me, it's more of a business attraction than anything,” said Van Ostenbridge, who brought the matter to the board earlier this week.

The village's sign ordinance currently prohibits signs with flashing lights, but doesn't mention stand-alone strobe lights.

There are concerns the strobe lights could pose a safety hazard by distracting motorists as they drive by the establishments that use them. Police Chief Terry Mee confirmed that no motorists or residents had lodged complaints against the lights, which are used by three businesses in town — Community Thrift Store, Laundry King and Discount Grocery Outlet.

The thrift store and the laundry turn on the lights to call attention to their security camera systems, Mee said.

For example, the thrift store had issues with people dumping clothes there in the middle of the night and put the lights up to let potential dumpers know they're being watched, Mee said. A manager at the thrift store hung up on a reporter seeking comment Friday, and authorities at the laundry could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the grocery store is set back from Route 25 and uses two strobe lights to attract customers, owner Fred Thompson said. Even with lights in the shopping center's parking lot, it's still dark, particularly with vacant stores nearby, so he needed something to draw attention to his business.

Thompson used to run the lights 24 hours a day but after getting wind of the village's proposal, Thompson started turning them off once the store closed at 7 p.m.

While he thinks he should be allowed to keep the lights on, he does not plan on raising a stink about the proposal. That's because the bulk of his customers come via word-of-mouth and from his posted signs, not the lights.

“Usually, I'm an in-your-face kind of person but something like this is so minute, it isn't going to matter,” Thompson said, adding that he knew the lights could be a hazard. “If they pass it, we'll adhere to it, or whatever they say.”