Franklin county awarded "Restoring the Night Sky" grant

            Franklin County has been awarded a grant through the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help protect nesting sea turtles.

The “Restoring the Night Sky” grant will provide about 34 thousand dollars a year over the next four years to help educate people about and enforce Franklin County’s sea turtle lighting ordinance.

Franklin County has one of the larger sea turtle nesting populations on the Gulf Coast and the grant would provide money to increase education and compliance with the county’s sea turtle lighting ordinance.

Sea turtles can be disoriented by house lights and the county has a rule requiring turtle safe lighting on homes along the beach.

The grant will allow the county to hire a part-time code enforcement officer to visit some of the homes and businesses and offer assistance in bringing their outdoor lighting under control.

The grant would also be able to help cover some of the costs of retrofitting some of the lights.

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