Walsh: Try to Get Penfield Lighthouse for Free

Selectman James Walsh doesn't dislike Penfield Reef Lighthouse.

He just doesn't want the town to pay for it.

The lighthouse, built in 1874 and on the National Register of Historic Places, is going to an online auction in mid-August, but Walsh said he wants the town to try to convince the General Services Administration to transfer ownership of the lighthouse under terms from 2008.

"What I'd like to try to get back to is the original process," Walsh said, referring to when the GSA was willing to transfer ownership of the lighthouse for a dollar.

The town submitted an application to own the lighthouse in 2008, but the GSA decided to give it to Beacon Preservation Inc. of Ansonia instead. Beacon, however, objected to leasing bottomlands at the lighthouse from the state and lost its claim to the lighthouse.

"I'm just shocked that we as a town...don't step into the shoes and become that next person," Walsh said during Wednesday's Board of Selectmen meeting. He asked whether anyone had contacted Fairfield's federal representatives to see if the town could get the lighthouse for free, and First Selectman Michael Tetreau said he hadn't.

But Selectman Sherri Steeneck said the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act has a regulation that calls for lighthouses to be sold if an acceptable party isn't found in the application process.

The part of the Act Steeneck was referring to says, "If no acceptable steward is found at the end of the NHLPA application process, the property will be offered for sale by competitive bid or auction."

"It's kind of like e-Bay, but for a lighthouse," said William Sapone, a Fairfield resident who was later approved as a member of the newly-reformed Penfield Reef Lighthouse Committee.

Recent high bids on lighthouses in Massachusetts and New Jersey have ranged from $90,000 to $190,000, and the new owner of Penfield Reef Lighthouse has to maintain and repair it in accordance with U.S. Secretary of the Interior recommendations. The U.S. Coast Guard would take care of only the beacon and fog horn.

The cost to repair the lighthouse was estimated at more than $200,000, according to a meeting of town officials and residents last week, though it's possible the committee could find volunteers to work on the lighthouse.

Liability insurance on the lighthouse would be minimal unless the town opened it to the public, according to Ellen W. Thees, an account manager at People's United Insurance Agency who attended last week's meeting.

On Wednesday, the selectmen agreed to re-establish the Penfield Reef Lighthouse Committee to explore the town acquisition of the lighthouse.

The committee hopes to raise money through the Fairfield Museum and History Center for the purchase and maintenance of the lighthouse. "To the extent we can do it all outside [the town budget] that's what we're looking to do...It really should be self-funded to some extent," Sapone said.

But committee members have little over a month before the online auction is supposed to start. The auction is expected to last from mid-August to the end of September.

Walsh said he couldn't imagine anyone other than the town of Fairfield owning Penfield Reef Lighthouse. "I think we've got to do everything possible to save that lighthouse for the town of Fairfield," he said.

Sapone said the lighthouse "is a very important icon for the town, historically and aesthetically," while Sandye Mann, a committee member, said, "To me, that lighthouse is what Fairfield is all about."

In addition to Sapone, Mann and Steeneck, members of the Penfield Reef Lighthouse Committee are Jennifer Carpenter, deputy chief of staff for Tetreau, David Agonis, Patricia Conley, Mary Jo Cornell, Linda Crowley, Steve Elworthy, Paige Herman, Deanna Hoffman, Dr. Evan Tilley, former Police Chief David Peck and Michael Jehle, executive director of the Fairfield Museum and History Center.

Sapone and Mann were identified as co-chairmen of the committee.