What should happen to historic Piedras Blancas lighthouse lens? Officials agree on 2 goals
The future of the 1875 Piedras Blancas Lighthouse lens on display in Cambria got a bit clearer after a meeting here Tuesday, Sept. 20, that brought together 17 people representing three nonprofits, four agencies (including some there in person from the East Coast) and others.
“Significant progress has been made toward an agreement” for the short-term protection of the French-made First Order lens, Blake Fixler, legislative assistant for Supervisor Bruce Gibson, said by email the next day.
The meeting at Cambria’s Veterans Memorial Building was attended in person by 14 stakeholders and three county staffers who participated remotely. Some U.S. Coast Guard officials flew in to see the lens in person for the first time and participate in the discussion.
From 1879 to 1949, light signals from the lens atop the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse tower warned mariners of nearby oceanic hazards. In 1949, the U.S. Coast Guard removed the heavy lens and lantern room from the earthquake-damaged structure.
The stately lens currently is exhibited in an aging glass enclosure alongside the Veterans Memorial Building in Cambria. Various concerns have been raised about the stability of that structure and any potential dangers it poses to the lens, along with environmental impacts such as sunshine, heat and moisture.
In an email interview Wednesday, Fixler said of the meeting that “we were able to build on the discussion from our last two meetings and reach some agreements on next steps and start work on some short-term solutions for the lens and the enclosure.
“All parties generally agreed that our shared priorities were the health of the lens itself as a historical artifact,” he said, “and that the goal was to keep it in the community.”
It’s a complex issue. The Coast Guard owns the lens. The Piedras Blancas Light Station about 15 miles north of Cambria is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Day-to-day responsibility for the lens has been handled by the Lions Club, which has had an agreement with the Coast Guard for decades.
All were represented in the meeting.
Coast Guard representatives visit lens
As part of the session, representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office in Washington, D.C., were able to see the lens in person for the first time.
They included national curator Arlyn Danielson and collections manager Janet Pasiuk, both from the curatorial service office. External affairs Cmdr. Mike Wolfe from the office of outreach and heritage also attended.
Before the meeting, they and other participants walked around and inside the structure, taking pictures and assessing in person the condition of the lens and the enclosure while also taking note of any threats to the security, well-being and protection of the lens.
County property manager Phil D’Acri notified the Lions Club in May that the structure had deteriorated so badly, it could threaten public safety, let alone the security of the lens itself.
County engineering assessments maintain that there’s a risk that anybody standing near the display could be hurt, and any structural failures could damage or destroy the French-made lens.
The Lions Club quickly had a wire construction-style fence barrier installed.
During the tour, Danielson said the lens is “a very beautiful piece of Coast Guard, U.S. maritime and coastal history, all wrapped up in a piece of industrial art. It’s impressive, imposing.”
Who attended the meeting
Tuesday’s meeting continued the deliberations that have been happening informally for months, but in a more organized fashion since the county’s safety alert. Since then, Gibson and Fixler have worked to bring all the stakeholders together twice before for serious discussions, with some representatives participating remotely,
Gibson told The Tribune by phone Sept. 14 that, for now, “my role is convening folks to do the work we have to do. … Right now, we’re trying to find out if there’s a framework, series of steps we can take, before we arrive at a particular path.”
Fixler indicated that a tentative agreement had been reached on the short-term goals.
Greg Haas senior district representative for Congressman Salud Carbajal, sat in for the congressman at the meeting. Carbajal — who currently represents San Luis Obispo County and other areas and chairs the Coast Guard’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation — “has a significant interest in the lens and the light station,” Haas said.
He wrote in an email on Wednesday that he’d “assured the USCG folks that the Congressman had no doubt that the community could come together on this issue and work toward a solution.”
Others who attended the meeting in person included: Gabe Garcia, field manager of the Bakersfield BLM office; Lions Club/Foundation members Greg Aitkins, Scott Addis and Jim Bahringer; and David Cooper of the Piedras Blancas Light Station Association. Dan Murphy from Wellsona and Bruce Elster from Shoreline Engineering brought their construction expertise and working knowledge of the lens.
D’Acri and Sarah Diggs of the county’s real property division and Mike Stoker of county planning attended virtually.
What happens next
Once the agreements between those stakeholders for protecting the lens in the short and long term move from tentative to definite, larger meetings will be held to include the public, inform the community more fully and give people a chance to express their thoughts on the issues.
Among the most important of those would be getting wide-spread public support for the project, which would require individual and community efforts, donations and enthusiasm for preserving the lens, the lighthouse, light station and their shared history.
