Congressman Arranges Conference

In the latest news from Old Saybrook, CT, comes the information that First Selectman Michael Pace has arranged a meeting with the US Coast Guard and the General Services Administration to tell them to “keep the lighthouse, we don’t want it.” Congressman Joe Courtney has arranged the January 30 meeting in Old Saybrook to allow Pace to voice his concerns directly to the powers that be in charge of excessing the lighthouse. Of course, we still don’t know exactly which lighthouse is being excessed. Both are pictured in the photo to the left. Is it the one at the end of the breakwater, which is featured on the state license plate? Or maybe it’s the Lynde Point Lighthouse. Either way, this has been a fiasco from the beginning.

Clueless in Old Saybrook

Pace, the First Selectman of the town of Old Saybrook, has expressed his opinion that the lighthouse should not be sold to a third party, and the Coast Guard should keep it and maintain it. Well, Mr. Pace seems clueless that the lighthouse doesn’t go to a private party. At least not at first. It’s offered to the local municipality or non-profit groups that are interested in maintaining it. A private person cannot buy the lighthouse, offered at $1, unless and until the GSA and the National Park Service find that there are no qualified non-profit groups that are able to maintain the light. The best way to prevent the light from reaching the general public is for the city or town, perhaps with the help of a local preservation group, to apply for and hopefully receive the light.

However, Mr. Pace cites the lack of public access to the light(s), navigational safety and emergency management as the reasons the Coast Guard should keep the light. All right, taking them in order. Public access. The lights are accessible only through a gated community. The Lynde Point light is also near the site of a proposed Liquid Natural Gas facility, which I assume is what Pace means when he talks about emergency management. Navigational safety, however, is another thing. Perhaps Mr. Pace is unaware that lighthouses are virtually obsolete, and that most navigation is done with electronic aids. And irrespective of who owns the light, the Coast Guard retains ownership of the lamp and maintains it.

Which Light Is It Anyway?

No one really seems to know which light it is. In a previous story, it was reported that Saundra Robbins of the GSA stated that due to a mixup by “some guy in Boston,” the wrong light was listed and that it actually is the Lyned Point lighthouse, not the Outer Light. From a story in the Shoreline Times:

The 1886 Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse has little in common with the 1838 Lynde Point Lighthouse even though the two are only a mile and a half away.
While the Breakwater Lighthouse is seen on Connecticut Save the Sound license plates, town police cruisers, the older Lynde Pointe Light has received less notoriety.
Despite their remarkable differences, federal officials confused the two, prompting them to place the virtually inaccessible Breakwater Lighthouse on a list of lighthouses the government hopes to divest in order to provide public access.
At the Sept. 6 Old Saybrook Board of Selectmen meeting, town officials said General Service Administration Property Disposal Zone employee Saundra Robbins admitted another employee at the Boston office made the mix-up after visiting Fenwick.

And yet, Saundra Robbins denied knowing what or where the Lynde Point Lighthouse is in an email reply to me.

Representative Gets Involved

Because Pace doesn’t want to buy it, he thinks the government should keep it. Well, that’s not going to happen. When the Coast Guard decides it’s excess, that’s generally it. If the town or a local non-profit wants it, it could go to auction. Back in September, Pace enlisted the aid of Joe Courtney to help stop the sale. From the story:

“It is important for the stakeholders responsible for the future of the lighthouse to have a clear understanding of one another’s needs, which is why I have convened this meeting,” Courtney, D-2nd District, said Friday. “My single goal is to make sure that the interests of the town are made clear to the GSA and Coast Guard as we move forward.”

So, on January 30, Pace will meet with the Coast Guard and GSA to “express his views face to face” at the town hall in Old Saybrook. I think it’s time for Mr. Pace to pull himself into the twenty-first century, and realize that the lighthouse, whichever one it is, will be dropped by the government, and it is in his and his town’s best interests to apply for the ownership. And if not the town, to at least support whatever group might form to take over the ownership. Perhaps the gated community at the point would be interested in forming a non-profit group for the lighthouse(s) preservation. After all, there is no dearth of money in the area. That gated community was the home of the late Katherine Hepburn, who loved the lighthouses.

Photo Credit: Old Saybrook Lighthouse taken May 31, 2007 by abphoto48 on Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

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