After years, push to build Point Roberts lighthouse continues
A couple with a seasonal home in Point Roberts will give $500,000 to help build a working lighthouse for Lighthouse Marine Park.
Dorothy and Darrel Sutton updated the County Council this week on a project years in the making. How far back does this effort go? At least since 1999.
A 2001 article in The Bellingham Herald noted that the Point Roberts Lighthouse Society had been trying to get a lighthouse at the seaside park for two years.
A revived version of the society is behind the latest effort.
The Suttons and other project supporters went before a council committee the afternoon of Tuesday, Dec. 8, with a model of a lighthouse built from an architectural drawing. The structure they’d like for the park is modeled on the Hooper Strait Lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
That lighthouse is now one of the permanent exhibitions at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.
“Despite the name, there is nothing that looks like a lighthouse in Lighthouse Park,” said Mark Robbins, a member of the Lighthouse Society.
The society wanted the County Council’s support for the project, which is still in the early stages despite the number of years. Work that still needs to be done includes a feasibility study, permitting and final cost estimates to build the lighthouse.
This is like nothing else we’ve seen.
Whatcom County Councilwoman Barbara Brenner
Supporters said the lighthouse would provide recreation opportunities, draw tourists, help with economic development, and offer a place for young people to gather. Others could use it to get married or to get together for family unions, they said.
The lighthouse also could house the U.S. Coast Guard’s navigational light and serve as a whale-watching platform in its 1,600 square feet.
“It would be advantageous for everyone in the community,” Dorothy Sutton said. “ It would be an icon that people would come to see in Point Roberts, Washington.”
County Council member Carl Weimer liked what he heard.
“I certainly support the project. It’s very exciting. It’s a generous gift,” Weimer said Tuesday afternoon.
So did council member Barbara Brenner.
“This is like nothing else we’ve seen,” she said.
The full council voted at its meeting Tuesday night to support the concept of the project and to thank the Suttons for their donation.
Kie Relyea: 360-715-2234, @kierelyea
This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 4:28 PM with the headline "After years, push to build Point Roberts lighthouse continues."