As most of you know the Outer Banks Conservationists were chosen to be
\nstewards of the Currituck Lighthouse through the application process under
\nthe National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act (NHLPA). An official in
\nthe Dept. of Interior is stalling the process and is reportedly asking both
\nparties to reach a compromise or reapply. Mike Vogel, ALCC president, wrote
\nthe following letter of protest:<\/p>\n
Dear Mr. Manson<\/p>\n
I am sending this message, in lieu of a more formal letter to ensure its
\ntimeliness, to voice concern over the attack on a properly legislated
\nprocess that is embedded in the current controversy over Currituck
\nLighthouse. As president of the American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee,
\na national leadership council and forum for the lighthouse preservation
\nmovement, I am disturbed by the erosion of carefully-considered lighthouse
\ndisposition policies as passed by Congress in the National Lighthouse
\nPreservation Act of 2000 — an act, ironically, cosponsored by Mr. Jones.
\nThis issue is being followed very carefully by the lighthouse preservation
\ncommunity. We have supported, and continue to support, the Outer Banks
\nConservationists in their effort to continue stewardship of the Currituck
\nLighthouse, a role they have earned because of their proven track record
\nand their restoration of the structure. Beyond that, the community at large
\nalso is dealing with mounting concern over the deterioration of towers
\nbecause of the impact of high-volume visitation, for which they were not
\noriginally designed. Properly managed, visitation can be accommodated with
\nminimal negative impacts (vibration damage to stairs, scratch and corrosion
\ndamage to increasingly old and fragile lenses, etc.). We believe proper
\nstewardship is much more likely to come from a preservation group, attuned
\nto the balance between conservation and display, than to a municipality or
\ntourism agency interested primarily in accommodating the maximum number of
\nvisitors. We note with concern the opinion voiced by Mr. Jones, in this
\ncase, that the county would be most capable of serving the many people who
\nwant to visit the light. Even if that is not his or the county’s dominant
\nguiding philosophy, it offers no confidence that county stewardship would,
\nnow or in the future, seek the best programs for both the tower and for
\nvisitors — a role the Outer Banks organization already has proven it can
\nfill, admirably.<\/p>\n
The Currituck question itself, though, is only part of this problem. There
\nis the more fundamental problem of erosion of the National Lighthouse
\nPreservation Act itself, which was designed to govern disposition of light
\nstructures in a way that ensures best stewardship. Mr. Jones’ efforts,
\nwhile undoubtedly intended to serve his home constituents, amount to an
\nattack on that process — which, as the Congressional Quarterly’s weekly
\nmagazine recently noted, is also an attack on a process he co-sponsored.
\nConsistency aside, the derailing of this process and its time deadlines is
\ndisturbing on a national scale, not just a local one. You may see this as a
\nlocal dispute; we see it as a torpedo fired at a newly-launched ship. I
\nwould at this time ask you to conform your decisions to the process and the
\ntime frame of the NHLPA and its implementing guidelines. In our judgement,
\nthat would mean confirming the existing stewardship of the OBC. Such a
\ndecision would not only reaffirm legislated and stated national policy, but
\nalso leave this specific lighthouse in the hands of an organization that
\nhas restored, preserved, maintained and displayed it with an admirable
\nlevel of success — instead of turning it over to new management with no
\nlighthouse experience. This is not, at its core, an economic development or
\ntourism exploitation issue; those are worthy but ancillary aspects, to what
\nis in essence a mandate for ensuring the best possible preservation and
\nlasting appreciation of an historic treasure. That was the heart of the
\nNHLPA legislation, and we ask that it guide and rule your considerations now.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As most of you know the Outer Banks Conservationists were chosen to be stewards of the Currituck Lighthouse through the application process under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act (NHLPA). An official in the Dept. of Interior is stalling the process and is reportedly asking both parties to reach a compromise or reapply. Mike Vogel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alpenalighthouse.org\/michiganlights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}