West Point lighthouse sale in the works
Development Corp. members approved purchase offer
A proposed sale of the West Point Development Corporation’s landmark structure, the West Point Lighthouse, is not sitting well with the corporation’s founding president. Carol Livingstone said she was surprised to learn the night before the corporation’s annual meeting on March 20, that directors had been negotiating the sale of the lighthouse inn since November.
The proposal was put out for membership discussion during a special meeting immediately following the annual meeting but a membership vote on the sale was put off until April 3 to give members more time to consider the offer. Having offered to sit as a director during the annual meeting, Livingstone said she withdrew that offer following the April 3 vote. Livingstone, who had served as president of the corporation from its inception in 1983 until 1989 and then served seven years in the 1990s as manager of the inn and museum, said she is disheartened.
She said it seems rules that prevent private ownership of most lighthouses don’t apply to the West Point Lighthouse because the corporation was operating the structure before those rules were put in place.
Harvey Stewart, president of the Development Corporation, is out of the country and was not available for comment on Tuesday.
Another executive member said the corporation is not commenting on the matter at this time. Livingstone, who is vicepresident of the P.E.I. Lighthouse Society, said the group is so concerned about the pending sale of the lighthouse that it is seeking a legal opinion on the transaction.
She is particularly concerned with the museum’s artifacts getting into private hands, suggesting they were given to the development corporation by the Canadian Coast Guard for display purposes and come from lighthouses throughout the Gulf Region.
If the sale goes through, she feels the artifacts should be turned over to other nonprofit groups that maintain lighthouses.