Just got an update in an email from the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society:

Lloyd Childers, director of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse (CBLH) informed us that, "We had a call from Dan Smith at NPS, saying that the applications left their office by FedEx at noon today (Tuesday 4 Nov)." So, the first step in the due process as set down by the Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act has gone into action concerning the transfer of the CBLH to the deserving entity. Now, will NC Congressman Walter Jones be able to override this process? We need your support by phone calls and emails to your representatives to ensure the due process continues. Read on...and your help is needed.

The following letter from Susan Montgomery of the Preservation Action League will tell you about the issue of the transfer of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse (CBLH). Even if NC Congressman Walter B. Jones (R) 3rd district favored the Outer Banks Conservationists over Currituck County to receive ownership of the CBLH, both entities should still be required to go through the due process of application, review panel, and a decision then would be made by Dept. of Interior Sec Gale Norton based on the panel's advice. Furthermore, if Cong Jones doesn't like the present and excellent stewards of the CBLH, he must not act as judge and jury in this issue. He supported the framework for the criteria of deciding who receives a lighthouse as written in his own legislation, the Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. Lighthouse societies around the country are expressing outrage at Jones's backdoor approach at taking control of a lighthouse, owned by all of America, and transferring it to Currituck County, part of Jones's political jurisdiction.

--begin quoted material
PRESERVATION ACTION LEGISLATIVE WATCH

A Weekly Service for Members

Vol. 5, Number 41, October 25, 2002

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Prepared by Preservation Action,

Tel: 202/298-6180

mail@preservationaction.org

www.preservationaction.org

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1 SECRETARY APPLAUDS LIGHT HOUSE PROGRAM, HOUSE MOVES TO VIOLATE IT

Last week, as Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton sat before the cameras on NBC's Today Show trumpeting the import and success of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation (NHLP) program, the U.S. House of Representatives was debating a bill that could undermine the program entirely.

Act of 2002 (H.R. 5569), which the House failed to pass last week, directs the Coast Guard to convey by quitclaim deed, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse to Currituck County, North Carolina. This conveyance would be made wholly outside the process and procedures put in place by the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of which Secretary Norton is rightly so proud.

Norton explained that the program is designed to transfer lighthouses and light stations from the Coast Guard to non-profits or government entities.

She stressed that in order to assure that the lighthouse is well cared for, the National Parks Service carefully screens prospective owners through a competitive process that people will comply with the historic preservation standards, and that they are people who really have the ability to take care of them." Under the program, the new owners must agree to adhere to the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation and make the site available to the public. The transfer contract also includes a reversion clause that require return of the property to the federal government if these conditions are not met.

The Currituck transfer proposed in H.R. 5569, section 1670, includes no such language. Instead, it would transfer the lighthouse without conducting a formal application process, and without any of the safeguards that Secretary Norton enumerated.

Preservation Action, the National Trust and a host of North Carolina groups and lighthouse activists are objecting to Section 1670 sponsored by Walter B. Jones (R-NC)that encourages other Members of Congress to act outside of the established program putting at risk the architectural integrity of these special maritime resources.

Chairman James Hanson (R-UT), 242 Cannon House Office Building, Washington,

DC 20515-4401 and Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-WV), 2307 Rayburn House

Office Building, Washington, DC 20515-4803. Ask them to remove Section 1607

from the Comprehensive National Resources Protection Act of 2002. If your

member sits on the House Resources Committee, write to him or her as well,

see list below.

House Resources Committee: Representatives Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Anibal Acevedo-Vila (D-PR), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Chris Cannon (R-UT), Brad Carson D-OK), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Barbara Cubin (R-WY), Peter A. DeFazio D-OR), Calvin M. Dooley (D-CA), John J. Duncan (R-TN), Eni F. H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Jim Gibbons R-NV), Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD), James V. Hansen (R-UT), J. D. Hayworth(R-AZ), Joel Hefley (R-CO), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Jay Inslee (D-WA), Walter B.Jones (R-NC), Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), Ron Kind (D-WI), Edward J. Markey(D-MA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), James P. McGovern (D-MA), Scott McInnis(R-CO), George Miller (D-CA), Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), Solomon P. Ortiz(D-TX), Tom Osborne (R-NE), C. L. Otter (R-ID), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), JohnE. Peterson (R-PA), Richard W. Pombo (R-CA), George Radanovich (R-CA), NickJ. Rahall (D-WV), Dennis R. Rehberg (R-MT), Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Bob Schaffer(R-CO), Michael K. Simpson (R-ID), Adam Smith (D-WA), Hilda L. Solis (D-CA),Mark E. Souder (R-IN), Thomas Gerard Tancredo (R-CO), W. J. Tauzin (R-LA),Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Robert A.Underwood (D-GU), Greg Walden (R-OR), Don Young (R-AK).

--end quoted material

Information about Congressional leaders can be
found at http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php?. The email address of your representative can be found at: http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html or http://www.house.gov/writerep/

The two leaders in the provision 1670 of HR 5569 are James V. Hansen (R) of Utah. (202) 225-0453 and Nick J. Rahall II (D) WV. (202) 225-3452. Call them and tell them to remove provision 1670 concerning the Currituck Beach Lighthouse from HR 5569. It is TOO controversial. They've had to add additional voice mailboxes to handle the responses to this issue from all over the country! And Cong. Jones calls it "noncontroversial." Not true! The lighthouse community must stand together and make sure the fair review process is adhered to in transfer of our American lighthouses.

An excellent editorial by Sandy Semans of the Outer Banks Sentinel is posted at the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society's journal site. http://www.outer-banks.com/lighthouse-society/journal/article.cfm?article_id=68 Or, on the homepage of the OBLHS at http:www.outer-banks.com/lighthouse-society, hit the "journal" button to the left and then choose "Lighthouse News Fall 2002."