By Sue Clark on Jul 17, 2007 in News | Comments Off 
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According to a story in the Post Tribune, Michigan City, Indiana, has sent in a letter of interest for the government’s offer to take over the Michigan City East Pierhead Light. But the Mayor of the town, Chuck Oberlie doesn’t want anybody to get too excited. “It wouldn’t be used for recreation,” he said. It could be anywhere from six months to two years before any recommendation is made on the transfer.
By Sue Clark on Jul 15, 2007 in Lighthouses For Sale | 1 Comment Print This Post
The lighthouse that graces Connecticut’s special license plate has been excessed by the Coast Guard. According to a story in the New Haven Register today, the Old Saybrook Lighthouse, a sparkplug style light that survived the 1938 hurricane, will be offered to municipal entities and non-profit organizations as soon as some issues are cleared up, including access. The lighthouse is only accessible through a private road, with no parking signs. Only property owners are allowed to enter. The other way, of course, is by boat. The lighthouse is at the end of a dangerous breakwater, about a mile out.
By Sue Clark on Jul 15, 2007 in Opinion | Comments Off Print This Post
The Cape Cod Times says no local town wants to take on the responsibility of applying for and maintaining the excessed Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse, located eight miles offshore in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. It will take a non-profit group to step up and apply for the lighthouse if it’s to be saved. Due to its location and the cost of restoration, estimated to be $100,000 USD, along with maintenance costs estimated by Bob Trapani, executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation, to be $15,000 to $20,000 per year.
By Sue Clark on Jul 14, 2007 in News, Threatened | Comments Off Print This Post
After taking a direct hit from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, along with a November 2006 storm that virtually finished the damage, plans for stabilizing the New Canal lighthouse have gone by the wayside after the estimates on cost came in much higher than anticipated. Estimations of the cost to shore up the structure ranged from $100,000 USD to $150,000 USD, but bids came in at $197,000 and $209,000 instead. One estimate for the entire restoration project calls for a budget of $2.7 million. Workers would need about $500,000 of that just to reconstruct the lighthouse, according to the story.
By Sue Clark on Jul 14, 2007 in Lighthouses For Sale | Comments Off Print This Post
Whaleback Ledge Lighthouse, offshore of Kittery, Maine is being excessed by the Coast Guard. Currently it is leased for maintenance to the American Lighthouse Foundation, but Tim Harrison, ALF President, states the ALF cannot take on the lighthouse due to lack of funding.
“It’s surely a(n) historic building, but as much as we say we’d like to save every lighthouse, we can’t because we’re a nonprofit,” he said. “We don’t get government funding and are only funded through donations and we’re at a point in history where it’s difficult for a nonprofit to maintain a lighthouse on the water without help from outside agencies.”
If no other non-profit or municipal organization steps up to the plate, it will be put up for auction by the General Services Administration.
By Sue Clark on Jul 13, 2007 in Other | Comments Off Print This Post
With the advent of radar, LORAN, GPS, and other electronic aids to navigation, one would think that lighthouses are outmoded, and that none have been built since the early twentieth century. Well, actually, that would be a wrong assumption. A few lighthouses have been built in the twenty first century, and more are planned. Two of the latest planned lights are Oak Orchard Lighthouse at Point Breeze, New York, and one at Walker City Park in Walker, Minnesota.
