Lighthouse News

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Colchester County Agrees To Fund Move

After a hard summer of fundraising which only brought in $5,000, the president of the Five Islands Lighthouse Preservation Society, Gloria Lewis, made an appeal for funding to the Colchester County (Nova Scotia) Council Committee. And they agreed to fund the move if no other monetary sources can be found. The land surrounding the lighthouse, the private Sand Point Beach Campground has been sold, and the access to the light is at risk.

International Chimney Offers Free Assistance

A long inactive and deteriorating lighthouse in Buffalo, NY, will be saved from going to the GSA auction block by the timely submission of Letters of Interest from two local groups. The Buffalo Lighthouse Association and another non-profit group, the Maritime Activity Interyouth Network (MAIN), that runs the Seven Seas Sailing School, will be competing for the lighthouse. At least competing in a governmental sense, since both groups plan to partner with each other no matter which one the NPS chooses as the new owner.

Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow introduce legislation to help preserve lighthouses

WASHINGTON - Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today introduced legislation to create a competitive grant program that will help to pay for the preservation and rehabilitation of historic lighthouses in Michigan and across the country.

The grants will help nonprofit organizations, which serve as caretakers for the historic landmarks, to maintain the beauty of the lighthouses and keep them accessible to the public.

Nevada Attorney Michael L. Gabriel is High Bidder

In a bidding contest that heated up in the last few days before closing, prominent Nevada attorney and lighthouse lover Michael Lynn Gabriel will pay $55,000 for the historic Borden Flats Lighthouse, near Fall River, Mass. Although the cost was much lower than the two recent auctions, the light appears to be in better shape. And it has the benefit of being much closer to land.

News Release

The People Have Spoken: Three Lighthouses in the Limelight

Louisiana, Michigan and North Carolina lighthouses move onto the final consideration stage

Klamath Falls, Ore. September 18, 2008 —

• Half a million public votes in the JELD-WEN Reliable Lighthouse Restoration Initiative have narrowed 12 lighthouse finalists to three (located in Louisiana, Michigan and North Carolina).
• Winner to receive window and door makeover.
• Three finalists now undergoing thorough evaluation to select final winner by November.
  Photos, videos and interviews with all three finalists are available, more info. accessible via below links

Claims Fresnel Too Much To Maintain

And yet another Fresnel lens is in danger of being removed from a lighthouse where it has served daily since 1927. Mukilteo Lighthouse in Washington state is potentially the latest victim of an attempt to replace thelens, shown at left, with a more “modern” optic. The Fourth Order Fresnel lens is the tower is the only one in use in the state, and although there is nothing wrong with it, the Coast Guard claims that because it’s getting harder to maintain, it wants to remove it and place it in a museum.

Cost To Repair? $1.45 Million

One of the West Coast’s most photographed lighthouses may close for public tours due to unsafe conditions, according to recent news stories. Specifically, the deteriorating metal has already impacted visitors, with only five people at a time allowed up the stairs from the previous number of eight. In yet another tale of leaks overtaking maintenance, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has raised a mere $300,000 of the matching funds needed to secure a grant. The hope is additional funding will come from an Oregon Department of Transportation grant.

Bolton Hayes Found Dead of Gunshot Wound

Although manner of death hasn’t yet been published, it’s being assumed that Hayes Bolton took his own life with a gun sometime between the evening of Thursday, September 4, when he was last seen alive, and Saturday, September 6, when he was found dead in his house. The investigation is ongoing at this time, and further details will be revealed at a later date.

Conservationists Say Nay

The February 2008 wreck of the Spanish Fishing Trawler Spinningdale has created calls for the building of a lighthouse on the World Heritage Site St. Kilda, an archipelago in the British Isles. The wreck during a blinding snowstorm in February was highlighted by a dramatic helicopter rescue of the fourteen crewmen aboard the ship. Four were hospitalized with hypothermia. Their vessel ran aground on rocks on one of the islands of the St. Kilda archipelago - 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides.

News Release from Tim Harrison

Lighthouses of the Sunrise County

“Never before in the history of lighthouses has such a book ever been published with so many historic images for such as small number of American lighthouses,” says Tim Harrison, author of the new book, Lighthouses of the Sunrise County, which recounts in stories and images of the people who kept the lighthouses in Washington County, Maine. Harrison said Maine’s Washington County has an amazingly rich lighthouse and maritime history that many people know very little about, “and I felt it was time to document and share this part of Maine’s history with the world.”