Lack of Funding Forces Closure

If you’re planning on going to the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge this October, that will be the only chance for you to climb the Finn’s Point Lighthouse. Its closing was announced today by Howard Schleigal, the manager for Supawna Meadows and Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. According to the Friends of Supawna Meadows, the lighthouse currently has no money allocated in its budget for maintenance and repair. The Department of Interior Budget has been stripped in the proposed 2009 fiscal year Bush Budget, to the tune of $410 million. Natural resources agencies are being starved of funds by Bush’s FY2009 proposal, says the former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service under the Clinton administration, Jamie Rappaport Clark. “The president’s final budget deals a huge blow to the agencies and programs charged with safeguarding our nation’s natural resources,” she said. “The next administration will be burdened with mending the damage caused by President Bush’s disastrous policies.”

The story at NJ.Com says it very well, and is what we can expect to happen more and more as Bush has tilted the largest budget ever to fuel the war in Iraq.

What had been a beacon of light to the coast for navigating ships has now become a shining light illuminating the lack of funding given to nature and historic preservation sites.

The lack of funding for the Supawna Meadows Wildlife Area and the cutting of staff puts an end to money to fund an engineering study to determine safety considerations. It may even see a return to the time before this tower was rescued, when graffiti covered its bottom and arson fires were set in the nearby dwelling. That dwelling is gone, razed in 1977, but a replica housing the offices of the Refuge was built in its place.

About the Tower

This cast iron tower is the remaining half of the Finn’s Point range lights. The front light was built first, in 185, and the rear tower was started in 1876. The pieces to this 94 foot tower were built in Buffalo, NY, by the Kellogg Bridge Company and transported in pieces by rail to Salem, NJ. From there, mule teams hauled the components by wagon tot he site, where it was assembled. A keeper’s house was built next to the tower, along with an outhouse and oil house. The lights were discontinued in 1933. However, complaints by the river pilots resulted in the rethinking of this closure and the lights were relit the next year. They were automated at this time, and no keepers were needed anymore. The lights shone on until 1950, when they were retired for good.

The tower was transferred from the Coast Guard to the National Wildlife Refuge in the late 1970s. A group calling itself the Save the Lighthouse Committee was formed, with the intention of moving the tower to a nearby park. That didn’t pan out, but they succeeded in placing it on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1981, that same committee, went to Washington D.C. by bus to present a petition to restore the tower to Congressman William Hughes. This drive resulted in having the tower repaired, sandblasted and painted for $33,600. An open house was held at the tower on October 14, 1984 on completion of the work. It’s been open one or two Sundays a month for climbing the 127 steps to the top.

What Can Be Done?

Paying for the war in Iraq has priorities for the Bush administration, and historic preservation, natural resources, and other concerns have taken a beating in funding. Nevertheless, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-NJ, who serves on the Subcommittee on Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation, the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, and the Subcommittee on Aviation, has pledged to help. In the story, he is quoted as saying, “I am working with my colleagues in Congress to in an effort to restore funding to our nation’s refuges, including Supawna Meadows. I have and will continue to strongly oppose proposals by the administration to short-change our refuges.”

We all need to write to our Representatives and Senators to let them know that funding the war while these important natural treasures go wanting for basic funds is wrong.

Photo Credits:

• Finn’s Point Steel Circular Door Entrance by Ted Kerwin. Some rights reserved.
• Finn’s Point Lighthouse by Talaba. Some rights reserved.

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