OPINION: A dock at New London Harbor 'Pequot' Light We don't own the houses, just the lighthouse - and we are not allowed in! Please help us get a DOCK!

the opportunity

We suddenly have an opportunity to apply for a “Good to Great” grant from the state of Connecticut. This special grant, offered for the first time, will provide historic sites with up-to $125,000 for a transformative change -- in our case, this change would be to restore the historic New London Harbor ‘Pequot’ Lighthouse dock so that we, visitors, and the US Coast Guard can get to Harbor Light by boat!

The dock is estimated to cost about $175,000. The grant would pay up-to $125,000 but requires a 25% match at the time of the application. If we apply for the full amount, that match would be $31,250. This total would get us pretty close to being able to complete the entire dock project.

This offer also means that every one dollar contributed to this campaign is matched x 4 by the grant to equal $5!

The grant was announced on June 11. The matching funds must be in-hand at the time of the application: July 11, 2015. But whatever the grant outcome, we will go ahead with the dock!

New London Harbor ‘Pequot’ Light is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Long Island Sound. According to the US Coast Guard, from the lantern at Pequot Light, one can see more lighthouse than from any other place on earth! Don’t you want to see that?!

the offer

Every contribution is appreciated and we thank you for considering this effort to keep a beloved icon open to the public.
We have a number of Perks available (see right), but it’s your support that matters most. There is strength in numbers. If we each contribute just a small amount, we will get there.

the issue

Yes, there is a serious issue we now have to discuss.
If it were not for a temporary injunction issued on June 19, 2015, we could not get to our own lighthouse! The new neighbors on both sides of the lighthouse are preventing our access and costing us a great deal of money in legal fees.

New London Maritime Society believes that you--the American public-- built the lighthouses. You own the lighthouses (through us -- a non-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization, which is steward of three lighthouses, and which is overseen by the National Park Service). And you deserve to have access to the lighthouses. Lighthouses are our history. As one European visitor put it, they are America’s castles.

This is the 15th anniversary of the National Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. In the history of the Act, no single organization has even been awarded ownership of three lighthouses -- and may I add, three such spectacular lighthouses: New London Harbor ‘Pequot’, Race Rock, and New London Ledge Lights. New London Maritime Society, with its educational ‘Lighthouse Kids’ programs, boat tours, partnerships in the community, and special events, is the poster child for Lighthouse Preservation.

In fact, New London Harbor Light was among the first group of six lighthouses offered for disposal by the GSA in 2002 -- The New London Maritime Society applied for the lighthouse in 2002 and Harbor Light was awarded to the Society soon thereafter. The actual conveyance ceremony took place eight years later in October 2010. This Lighthouse Matters!

Currently NLMS is defending the rights of the public to have access to their lighthouses in court! In a lawsuit filed by a neighbor to Harbor Light, our lawyers have filed a ‘Motion to Dismiss’ which argues in favor of federal primacy in all zoning disputes with these historic American beacons. If this motion is granted, we will have won a battle for all civic groups working to preserve their local lighthouses.

Across five years of programming, New London Maritime Society has successfully established New London, Connecticut, as a true ‘Lighthouse Hub. People now recognize the city has a wealth of diverse lighthouses just off shore. Businesses promote the idea, our director was awarded Elk’s 2015 ‘Citizen of the Year’ and the Society received formal recognition from New London’s Economic Development Commission for it’s work to turn New London into a ‘Lighthouse Hub’. We are supported by a terrific board of trustees, who are workers and givers to this campaign. At our board meeting on Thursday, June 25, trustees pledged cash & check donations for 12 planks not recorded on this on-line tally!

Like the City of New London itself, the New London Maritime Society is small, poor, and understaffed. But we are trying to make things a little better in the world. Preserving these historic shared community icons, maintaining the public’s right to access these landmarks, and working to support the US Coast Guard -- which still maintains the lanterns to keep our mariners safe -- is something we feel we can do.
the other issueWe have been successful at establishing New London as the region’s ‘Lighthouse Hub’. One way we did this was with a successful program of lighthouse boat tours. These trips are our single most-successful fund-raising activity.

But this summer we are facing competition in the lighthouse tour category. This is not a bad thing because at our core we believe in and advocate for lighthouse and history education. However, to continue to earn the donations necessary to restore and maintain our lighthouses, we need to keep our tours successful. One good way to do that is to differentiate what we offer. Already our Sunset and Full-Moon tours are unique. By adding some tours that can land at the dock at Harbor Lighthouse to visit inside the lighthouse by boat we will be able to offer another unique experience.
The dock also will bypass the problems we currently are having with both our neighbors, who are preventing our access by land to the lighthouse.
We really need that dock!

the challenges

Restoring the historic dock at the lighthouse and exercising our riparian rights will allow us access to the lighthouse during reasonable weather and when we can afford to hire one of our local captains to ferry us over. But we still have a long haul ahead of us with the legal issues with our neighbors to establish a path by land. We fear that the neighbor bringing the lawsuit can tie up this little non-profit for quite some time -- and this appears to be the plan.

We do believe that our rights will be upheld in court, and with that battle won, we’ll have struck a blow for all lighthouse friends groups. We also will have made the option of adopting a lighthouse a bit less daunting for other groups like us, who fear this kind of treatment from NIMBY neighbors on the waterfront!

want to help?

Please contribute

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-dock-at-new-london-harbor-pequot-light/x/1556000#/story

There are ways to help other than to contribute:

• Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about your campaign.
• Remind them to use the Indiegogo share tools!

Thank you!