Group Ends Effort To Lease Historic Lighthouse Sought Deal With Coast Guard To Protect Point No Point Landmark From The Public

Sun., Feb. 15, 1998

Associated Press

A proposal to lease the historic Point No Point Lighthouse from the Coast Guard has been withdrawn by a preservation group composed mostly of property owners living nearby.

The Point No Point Lighthouse Preservation Society has been competing for the lease with a Kitsap County-led coalition interested in seeing the lighthouse turned over to the public.

The society was organized by area residents concerned that the coalition would not be able to solve ongoing problems with trespassers, speeders and illegal parking at the lighthouse, which is at the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula, on the east side.

The Coast Guard, which operated the lighthouse, learned of those concerns and asked the group to formalize itself and submit an application for the lease. The society was formed in December and awarded the lease the same month.

But the award was held up after a protest by North Kitsap County Commissioner Chris Endresen over the selection process.

When the Coast Guard began the appeals process, it asked the two groups to submit a joint lease proposal. The society rejected that idea.

The county coalition, which had been seeking the lighthouse lease for four years, includes fisheries officials, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, the town of Hansville and others with a long-standing interest in seeing the lighthouse turned over to the public.

The society cited disagreements with the county in withdrawing its proposal.

“Ongoing disagreements with the county about the fundamental issues of the responsible use of the lighthouse would continue to harm not only our group and community, but make it more difficult for us to deal with the challenges of maintaining the lighthouse property itself in a reasonable fashion,” the society said in a statement.

The group also questioned the Coast Guard’s selection process.

“There seems to be a strong bias by some elements in the Coast Guard to keep the county in the running for the lease, either by encouraging our two groups to merge proposals, or by continuing to promote the county’s candidacy,” the statement said.

“We have decided to remain a positive, organized force for the Point No Point community,” the statement added.

“One facet of that will be to ensure that the lighthouse property, and other publicly owned properties in our neighborhood, are managed and used responsibly, and that private property rights are respected and protected.”

At issue is the lighthouse itself - the oldest one on Puget Sound - a separate duplex living quarters and a little more than three acres of land, including water frontage.

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