Legal Issues Harm Michigan’s Lighthouse Restoration
By Sue Clark on Jul 6, 2007 in News, Restoration 
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The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press has a story today about efforts to restore Michigan’s oldest light, Fort Gratiot Light in Port Huron. Restoration costs are expected to be near $800,000 USD, and the group working to preserve it has in hand a $400,000 federal grant to start the restoration. The tower has holes in its sides where the bricks have popped out, and a ten foot crack on the north side that allows water to get in, freeze and thaw, causing more structural damage.
What’s buried in the story, though, is the legal issues that preservation groups have with ownership. Michigan claims ownership to the land beneath offshore lighthouses, and restricts its use to hunting, fishing or recreation. And while that wasn’t a problem when the federal government owned and maintained those lights, since they had an easement to maintain navigational aids, once they have been transferred to private, municipal or non-profit ownership, the state steps in and demands a lease, with attendant payments to the state to be worked out. This has slowed the transfer of lighthouses and added to the costs.
DeTour Reef Lighthouse, on Drummond Island in northern Lake Huron (photo at right), has had millions invested in its restoration, but has now become, according to the story, a poster child for the legal issues. The DRLS has a twenty year lease from the Coast Guard (beginning in 2000), so will be dealing with these issues when the lease runs out, and the lighthouse is perhaps transferred to their stewardship. They currently run a lightkeeper’s program, which was written about (.pdf file) by Susan Ager, a Free Press columnist last year, along with an entry from Cindy Zuker from Country Lines about spending the weekend.
“We are a volunteer organization helping the state maintain what could be a crumbling eyesore, and they want to charge us for it? It’s offensive,” said Clif Haley, a director and legal adviser of the DeTour lighthouse.
Haley maintains the lighthouse easement rights transferred with the ownership. But the State of Michigan feels differently.
A reply from the Department of Environmental Quality:
“The public trust really does mean the bottomlands are held in trust for the benefit of the public in general,” said Stanley Pruss, DEQ deputy director. “So when we convey an interest in the Great Lakes bottomlands … it has to be done consistent with the law.”
What do you think? Leave a comment with your opinion.
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August 17th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Sue,
We did a story in June about the issue you found at the bottom of the Freep article. It’s here:
www.publicbroadcasting.net/wiaa/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1090383§ionID=1
Peter
Interlochen Public Radio
August 18th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Thanks for the link and info, Peter. I checked it out, it’s a great story. Anyone wishing a little more in depth background on this issue, be sure to check it out.
tinyurl.com/2xul2v
(Link shortened due to its length)