Lighthouse Access a Rocky Road
By Sue Clark on Aug 16, 2007 in Other 
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A month ago, Lighthouse News wrote about the access problems faced at Port San Luis Lighthouse. Since that time there have been other cases pop up that limit access to historic beacons. One facing that problem is the recently accessed Old Saybrook Lighthouse, featured on Connecticut’s lighthouse license plate. Property owners at the end of the only road leading through the gated commumnity of Fenwick, are resistant to the idea of people coming through their town to view the light. One of the requirements of the National Lighthouse Preservation Act of 200 is to open the lighthouse to the public for educational purposes. Because of the restricted access at this point, the NPS hasn’t put out a property description and application, until the problems of access are worked out.
And in Nova Scotia, Chebucto Head lighthouse, which has been rebuilt several times due to fires, is accessible only by an unmaintained road, which is causing grief for visitors and residents alike. Accoreding to the story in the Nova Scotia News:
Dozens of potholes — a few of them up to three metres wide — have eaten away the road while bushes along the side are slowly narrowing the two-lane, 1.5-kilometre route.
The road heaves in the middle and slopes off at the sides, leaving little room to negotiate around all the holes and over the grassed-over crevices.
“It’s bad enough to throw you off a bike,” cyclist Joe Reid of Cole Harbour said Monday after biking out from Dartmouth.
The Fisheries and Oceans Canada owns the road, but maintains it “only enough for operational needs.” However, that doesn’t help the residents who alos live along the road, including young children, older couples and disabled people. Rescue and emergency vehicles would have a hard time accessing any house on the road, due to the conditions. The road is outside the system maintained by the city of Halifax, and according to the story, the dispute over ownership has been going on since the mid 1990s.
Chebucto Head Lighthouse was built in 1872, and has undergone four changes to its original tower. The last remaining keeper’s house fell victim to a fire in 2004, unnoticed due to fog until it was too late, and the Chebucto Head LIghthouse Society has plans to acquuire the lighthouse and rebuild the 1940s keeper’s house to its original specifications.
Chebucto Head Lighthouse is located on the head at the west entrance to Halifax Harbor, and is a popular destination for weekend hikers, berry pickers, shipwreck divers and people who drive there for the view of the ocean, storms, passing ships and whales.
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