A couple of people have been asking me why I use the tag - ‘Supporter of the Cape meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund’ in addition to my proudly-proclaimed membershiphood of the Ottawa Valley Garden Railway Society.
Well, I make no apologies for telling the story here, if anybody is interested enuff to read it.
Wheels turn slowly for damaged lighthouse
TILLAMOOK OREGON - A plea hearing for two men accused of vandalizing the Cape Meares Lighthouse has been pushed back for the fourth time.
David Reign Wilks, Jr., 26, and Zachary Jon Pyle, 23, now are scheduled to appear in Tillamook Circuit Court on Oct. 8. That plea hearing was rescheduled from Aug. 27.
The two were arraigned in April. Subsequent plea hearings all have been postponed.
In January, Wilks and Pyle allegedly fired shots at the lighthouse, breaking 15 panes of outer windows and causing extensive damage to the historic Fresnel lens located in the building’s lantern room.
They were arrested Feb. 11 and charged with criminal mischief, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.
The Friends of the Cape Meares Lighthouse, a nonprofit organization, continues to raise funds for the lighthouse’s repair. Thus far, the group has collected more than $26,000.
Donations may be made through a PayPal account online at www.capemeareslighthouse.org, or mailed to Friends of Cape Meares Lighthouse, P.O. Box 262, Netarts, OR 97143.
A portion of the money will go toward repairing the broken window panes, which have been covered with plywood since the vandalism.
Cape Lookout State Park Manager Pete Marvin said Jeld-Wen Windows in Klamath Falls has offered a discounted price to replace the 15 damaged windows. Jeld-Wen employees were out measuring the windows last week and should have the panes replaced by the end of the month, said Marvin.
“They expressed an interest right off the bat that they wanted to help, and it’s just taken the process a while to work out,” he said.
The lighthouse will be closed for about a week while the new windows are installed.
The building’s windows, which were replaced in the 1980s, consist of two panes of laminated glass with a plastic layer between.
The effect is similar to a car windshield. When the windows were shot, they spider-webbed but did not crumble.
The cost to replace the damaged windows, plus a few more, is about $5,000, Marvin said.
However, the windows are just a small part of the needed repairs. Estimates to restore the Fresnel lens to its condition prior to the shooting are about $500,000, Marvin said. Taking the lens to 100-percent restoration is closer to $800,000.
“The bigger question is, what do you do with the lens?” Marvin said. “You can get a glass prism made to look the same as the glass that’s up there, but it will never be the same, because they don’t make glass like they did back then. Plus, it won’t have the historic fabric that the old glass had.”
A Florida-based company specializing in lighthouses assessed the Cape Meares lens, recovered its salvageable pieces and bound together the remain parts.
The broken lens has been stabilized, but at the expense of closing the upper tower, which once was open to tourists.
“Vibration and that kind of thing can make it worse, so basically we’re in a situation where we’re not letting people go up in the tower because footsteps and things can damage it further,” Marvin said.
The lighthouse, which was active from 1980 to 1963, is operated and managed as a park by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, although it is owned by the U.S. ,Coast Guard.
“There are two main trains of thought in the Coast Guard as far as the lens and the historic lighthouse,” Marvin said.
"A lot of people in the Coast Guard tend to believe that the lens should be removed from the lighthouse and put in a museum and safe storage.
“The other train of thought is that the historic lens belongs in the historic building.”
Marvin said it’s unlikely anything will be done with the lens for several more years, since the Coast Guard, over the past decade, has begun divesting itself of lighthouses.
The National Preservation Lighthouse Act of 2000 allows the Coast Guard to dispose of its lighthouses by transferring them, at no cost, to other government agencies or nonprofits to operate them for the public use.
Cape Meares, as a lighthouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is eligible for the program, but has not yet come up as a listing.
“Cape Meares is one of the lighthouses scheduled to be in that process, so State Parks will be applying to acquire it,” Marvin said.
He said it could be years before that happens. Meantime, the Coast Guard is unlikely to make any decisions regarding the lens.
“There’s a lot of things that have to be figured out, and the wheels don’t necessarily turn fast,” Marvin said.
“Something bad happens and a lot of people say, ‘We’ve got to do something right now.’ When you’re dealing with a historic structure and different ownerships, there’s a lot of things to consider.”
The *ssholes who did this while they were smashed out of their teeny brains on alcohol should, IMO, be out on the streets begging for money to help make the full repairs.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund