The Lightkeeper's Blog

Where to begin is always a question when I have set this site aside for a time.

April began with the installation of the boardwalk. It went very well and was phased in over three days to make it manageable. The stretch that leads up to the Tower was not installed and that is a help as those pieces are the heaviest of all of the 46 blocks that make up this puzzle. It is level and there is little bounce to it. There have been bikes and carriages and wheel chairs and walkers taking full advantage already.

This is a view inside the removed lantern room. The bracing kept it stable during the removal and I grabbed a shot or two before the room is carted off to serve as a model for its replacement. Toxic materials were found by the contractors and engineers. Those toxins make the reusing of the former top impossible going forward. Truth told I doubted this room could be recovered and placed somewhere else. The leaking copper would have had to be replaced. In the first stages of this project, way back when, the copper replacement was priced at $160,000.00. In today’s market that price surely has gone up and that pushes a reusing of this room way up towards $300,000.00. That would be one expensive decoration.

Early May saw an event return to Cedar Point – the empowerHer luminaria for Mother’s Day weekend. This is the third or fourth year this event has been held and each year it has been improved and growing. Food trucks, high quality music, and tons of volunteers make it a special event for sure.

They left the grounds as clean as they have ever been when the night was complete. Good folks and a good cause well represented.

This map captures the plan for fencing off the Light as the restoration project begins for real. We have asked for one more piece to block off a path into the project from the driveway and hope to have that in place by Tuesday. 10 people asked to use the fenced off Porta Pottie between 9 and Noon yesterday. They all wanted to jump the fence.

Work has been done at the top of the light in anticipation of preparing a solid base on which a rebuilt lantern room will be placed.

The dehumidifier which hid under the stairs has been disconnected from its power source as well. That will be replaced with a new unit after more than 20 years trying to keep the granite and the brick from turning too green with moisture.

Several LED work lights have been placed at different levels. In the image below that light helps reveal some of that green.

Strapping has been fixed to the Tower to support the work being done inside and to keep what are known to be secure courses of bricks in place. Inner courses will be removed and with the straps there will be a counter pressure to the jack hammering.

This trap door will be the gate to the next steps.

The hazards in the old lantern room have been addressed and now the target is a solid tower to return a brand new lantern room to its proper place.

Julie has been invited to be part of a weekly meeting tracking the progress of the work and to offer what we might know or see to the process. I could write about our annual planting here as well but I will pick up that thread at a later date.