Lighthouse News

I’ve recently joined Twitter and would like to invite my readers to follow me on it. If you don’t know what Twitter is, it’s considered a microblogging platform, but I prefer to think of it as a social networking tool. Messages are sent in 140 characters or less (just like your text messages) and can be done from the web, your phone, or from any of the multitude of applications for Twitter.

So the bidder known as dimlight now owns two Ohio lighthouses. The final amount for the Conneaut Lighthouse was $35,000. Not a bad price in today’s economy. And as far as I could tell, this was probably the best of the three Great Lakes lighthouses that have been up for auction since early September.

Conneaut Lighthouse will be up for auction again in Spring of 2010. The purchaser, Gary Zaremba, did not get the required bottomlands lease from the state of Ohio. Watch this site for more information for when the auction draws near.

Life on the Rock - Tillamook Rock is now available in its entirety as a PDF. Download the entire series as a PDF file. You can right click on the link and save it to your computer, or you can open it in your browser (will open in a new window) and save a copy from inside the file. You will need the free Adobe Reader to view it. If you don’t have it, you can download it at Adobe.Com.

Life on the Rock -Tillamook Rock

Two sites in a new category (Non-Profit Help) have been added to the Links page. The Wild Apricot Blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations, clubs, charities, communities and other groups. It discusses issues and trends in modern web technologies that help your organization achieve more with less. A must read and bookmark.

Another one added is The Corporate Dollar, whose focus is to empower your non-profit mission with social media marketing on the internet.

Clover Island Lighthouse plans have been finalized, and permits are being sought. The Port is currently awaiting word on a possible $322,000 grant from the city of Kennewick, which will go a long way toward the cost of the new lighthouse. Construction is set to start in 2009. More on the story of this new lighthouse as it develops.

Some may have noticed the translation help is gone. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a website resource hog. So for those of you that may have used it, my apologies, but have added a Google Translate gadget to the sidebar. It does add support for more languages. Plus it doesn’t break the page formatting like the “plugin” version did. And the entire page is translated. Any problems with it, please let me know.

The bidding on the auctions for Old Orchard Shoals and West Bank Lighthouses has closed, with nearly a half million dollars going to the GSA. The winning bid on Old Orchard Shoal Lightstation was $235,000, submitted by the username asdfg. And West bank Lighthouse went for $245,000 to kswiss1. That’s an awful lot of money for two lighthouses in need of major repair. Watch for an upcoming article on the high (and often hidden) costs of purchasing a surplus lighthouse at auction.

The National Park Service has awarded the Penfield Reef Lighthouse to Beacon Preservation, Inc., turning down the town of Fairfield’s application. A letter from the National Park Service to Flatto said that after reviewing both applications, Beacon Preservation “represents a superior program for the preservation and public use of the Penfield Reef Lighthouse.” The full story is at Spectral Keepers of the Light.

At least, Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse has one. A bidder nicknamed MWHLHA has opened the bidding with the minimum $10,000. Still no bids on West Bank Lighthouse, though.

Update: West Bank Lighthouse also has a bid for 10,000 from kswiss1.

Good luck to both parties. A viewing of both lighthouses is scheduled for 5 August for registered bidders.

I have only heard back from two of the seven winners in the birthday giveaway. On July 12, if I haven’t received the mailing addresses of those that have been drawn, I will redraw from the remaining names as a second chance drawing. So please, if I’ve contacted you with the news you were a winner, please get back to me before that date.