Penfield Lighthouse Will Cost $450K to Repair

Chair Sandye Mann updated the board on the committee’s progress in the .

Unfortunately for the committee and those who wish to bring the lighthouse back under the town’s stewardship, the committee does not have the funds to continue in the bidding process -- at least, not on its own.

The current bid for the lighthouse is $45,000, Mann said. The committee has raised, through various fundraisers since late summer, $20,000 -- enough to cover the $10,000 deposit to take part in the auction, but not much else.

"We had very high hopes that this was a doable thing for the town," Mann said. "We are terribly disappointed."

Placing the deposit meant bringing members of the General Services Administration (GSA) to the lighthouse to complete an inspection, which was done on Nov. 2, Mann said. Inspectors concluded that it would cost a total of $450,000 to complete the necessary repairs to the exterior of the lighthouse, according to Mann.

These costs do not include annual maintenance of the lighthouse -- a hard figure has yet to be presented to the Board of Selectmen.

Tetreau voiced concerns about the costs to maintain and repair the lighthouse, to which Mann replied, “We know if there’s a chance to acquire the lighthouse, we will have to work our backsides off to raise the money.”

She cited the massive fundraisers the Norwalk Seaport Association conducts to maintain the Sheffield Island Lighthouse, like the annual clambake and Oyster Fest -- events that the committee could perhaps make happen in Fairfield.  

As dire as the circumstances appear to the committee – the auction will close on Dec. 15, and any decision to bid will have to be approved by other town bodies, including the RTM -- Tetreau suggested a possible window of opportunity.

Under the GSA's guidelines for lighthouse stewardship, the owner of the lighthouse must also own or lease the bottomlands the structure sits on, Mann said. The town once owned those bottomlands before the state awarded Beacon Preservation stewardship in 2008.

Tetreau suggested that he and Selectman James Walsh (Selectman Sherri Steeneck recused herself from the discussion, as she is on the lighthouse committee) encourage the committee to look into acquiring the bottomlands from the state before proceeding with the auction.

That way, in theory, the town becomes the only legitimate bidder as it will become the owner of the bottomlands -- though Mann believes the state will only offer to lease the land at the time. Either way, it could provide the opportunity to obtain the lighthouse at a nominal cost each year (it costs $1 to cede land in a quitclaim deed, Tetreau said).

Mann also said that one of the bidders, a former Navy Seal, mentioned at the site inspection that he would be interested in partnering with the town to acquire the lighthouse.

Walsh asked that the committee also look into seeing if that bidder would be willing to pitch in for a mutual bid and possibly make a dent in the $450,000 for repairs.

Both selectmen voted to officially encourage the committee to pursue those two possibilities.

Otherwise, two of the other bidders Mann has come to know through the process expressed interest in living in the lighthouse for at least a few weeks a year, if the state will allow it.

[Editor's Note: Updates on other topics discussed at the Board of Selectmen meeting -- the reports made by Deputy Fire Chief Art Reid on Tropical Storm Irene and the October snowstorm -- will be published Monday.]

"Whoever ends up purchasing that lighthouse will end up being a constant neighbor," Mann said. Every time a resident looks at the lighthouse, they could see "whatever's going on."