Working on the lighthouse

By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com

As any homeowner ought to know, a house that’s not maintained is a house that’s going to cost big money and require a lot of work down the road.

Lloyd Bogue and Joe Santiana discovered that firsthand this past summer as they worked on one of the city’s most famous homes, the Ashtabula Lighthouse.

Santiana is president and Bogue is vice-president of the Ashtabula Lighthouse Restoration and Preservation Society, which obtained title to the lighthouse in the spring of 2007. A handful of volunteers has been working to repair and restore the 1905 structure ever since ownership transferred from the federal government.

“In the five years (since members initially inspected the property), it’s probably sustained over $100,000 of damage because we could not get out there and do preventive maintenance things to keep things from happening to it,” Bogue says.

Perched on the west breakwater, the lighthouse is subjected to heavy waves and, surprisingly, large amounts of sand carried by those waves. The men say some of the rooms where windows where were compromised by weather had two to three inches of sand and debris in them.

“The lighthouse had not been touched since 1973,” Santiana says. It was in complete disarray.”

A structural engineer reviewed the property and did not find any issues, despite the cosmetic deterioration.

“We started by cleaning the whole inside from top to bottom,” Santiana says. “We even had a raccoon that had made its home out of it.”

In 2007 the primary focus was on getting electrical power to the structure. When the lighthouse was manned, a lead-sheathed cable from land supplied power. The line was cut sometime after the Coast Guard automated the lighthouse.

“What we really tried to do last year was get the power cable energized,” Bogue says. “There is a fault in the cable, and it would cost way too much to reactivate it, to find the fault and repair it.”

Ziegler Heating’s Tim Volpone came to the rescue this summer with the donation of a 17,500-watt generator that provides more than ample power for working on the structure. The men say they were able to get all the lights in the rooms working again this summer.

Access was the other challenge to working on the lighthouse, the deck of which is about 25 feet above the water surface. Until this year, the society had to depend upon accommodating boat owners to get them to the work site. This spring the society invested in a small boat to shuttle workers to the site without having to bother other boat owners.

It’s still a straight-up climb on a steel ladder to reach the deck, and stepping off the bobbing boat onto the first rung is harrowing. For that reason, work crews have been limited to intrepid, strong males pulled from the society’s membership.

Accessibility should improve next year when the society installs a staircase on the side of the lighthouse’s foundation and places a large floating dock next to it. The dock was purchased with money from a $15,000 Ohio Department of Natural Resources Coastal Management grant.

The Con-O-Lift deck is in storage while the society awaits permits and a lease agreement from Ohio. As with the land under the lighthouse, the society must lease property for the floating dock. Officers hope to have all permits in place by the time the ice is off the lake next year.

They say the dock will facilitate civilian visitation of the structure and eventually enable the society to offer tours and programming. However, there is a lot of work to be done before that happens.

Santiana says the top priority this summer was to securing the structure against wind, water, vandals and the occasional raccoon or bird that finds shelter there.

The structure, including the doors and shutters, is constructed from 1/4-inch boilerplate. One door can weigh 700 pounds or more; a shutter 150 pounds. Frozen in place by rust, the shutters and doors had to be oiled, heated and carefully worked to free the hinges.

“It would take five to six hours to get a pair of shutters operational again,” Bogue says.

There are still at least six shutters that need work, and at least two pairs were in such poor condition, replacements will have to be fabricated this winter.

Volunteers also restored the flagpole and, for the first time since 1973, a flag has flown at the lighthouse. Dave Poole, a society member, volunteered to climb the 35-foot-tall pole on a ladder to make the repairs. The volunteers flew the flag whenever they were working at the lighthouse this summer.

The single largest task, and one still in the works, was repairing the concrete deck. The deck has been cracked by weather and water, resulting in potential compromise of the foundation. The concrete needed for this repair is specialized and expensive, about $25 to $30 for an 80-pound bag.

Treasurer Debbie Santiana tracked the manufacturer of this specialty item, Bonsal American, which agreed to send an area representative, Frank Hughes, to look at the project.

“He was impressed with our project, saw our need and spec’d out the concrete,” Bogue says.

It came to eight yards, or 320 bags, about $6,000. The company donated the material and its transportation from Baltimore.

The challenge was getting those bags to the lighthouse. Their first brainstorm was to load one-half of a skid, 1,700 pounds, on the bow of the Ashtabula Yacht Club’s boat and manually hoist the bags onto the deck.

“We just about killed the guys up there,” Bogue says, recalling the effort it took to raise the concrete.

They turned to Great Lakes Towing, which operates two tugs at Ashtabula. While the company was willing to load the material on a tug, the contractor needed the materials at the lighthouse earlier than Great Lakes could get a tug there. The men went back to plan A, this time using an electric hoist.

The volunteers say about three-quarters of the deck work should be completed by the time weather closes down access.

“If it had been started a month earlier, we’d be in good shape,” Bogue says.

Also accomplished this summer was a restoration of the National Weather Service data-gathering equipment. Residents may recall that when Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio, Cleveland television stations reported that an 87-mph gust was recorded at the Ashtabula Lighthouse, data collected by the equipment that continuously monitors conditions there.

“They hope to update their satellite uplink so fishermen and boaters who live (away from the city) can go online and see the weather conditions before they drive up here,” Santiana says.

Because of the historic nature of the lighthouse and resulting stipulations attached to its acquisition and restoration, work must be done in accordance with strict rules and oversight. This slows progress and requires a lot of forethought -- projects they plan to do next year will be presented to the historic preservation oversight officials for review this winter so they have a green light when the weather breaks.

The huge project facing the volunteers is painting the entire structure. Sherwin Williams has been enlisted to assist with the project and had its chemists take samples of existing paint to determine its composition. The society hopes the paint manufacturer will agree to provide the materials and contractor for the job, and then use it in their national advertising.

The job would be very expensive because the structure would have to be tented to contain any paint debris that could pollute the lake.

“We have to do everything according to the state preservation office and we want it done properly so we don’t have any conflicts with the EPA,” Santiana says.

The society will use the winter months to write grant applications -- both the Morrison Foundation and Ashtabula Foundation awarded grants based upon applications written by Lorna Greicius. Santiana says the grants will go toward roof and cement repairs and matching funds for the floating dock.

Fundraisers provide the other major income source. Last summer the society held its annual fish fry at Lakeshore Park and added a boat-ride fundraiser that took passengers near the lighthouse.

Santiana says that with the deck in place, the lighthouse could start to receive visitors as early as late next year. The ultimate goal is to restore the lighthouse to its appearance when keepers stayed there so it can be both a learning center and tourist attraction.

“It’s going to take five to 10 years for a complete restoration,” he says. “We are hoping by the end of next summer to bring people out for a tour of the restoration.”

online: Ashtabulalighthouse.com

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