The Newsmagazine of Long Beach Island and Southern Ocean County

By Maria Scandale | on July 21, 2022

ONSITE: N.J. Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette (in blue suit) talks to members of the press and those associated with the park or the project at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park July 18. (Photos by Ryan Morrill)

The striking sight of the enshrouded, scaffold-surrounded Barnegat Lighthouse this summer may be rare in the future because the state’s plan is not to repeat the laborious repainting method anytime soon. New, more weather-resistant paint is behind that aim.

So said project officials answering questions on the $1.3-million exterior renovation during a press conference July 18 hosted by state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette and others.

N.J. Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette

Repairs are “on track” to be completed in October “and make the space available to the public again,” said the commissioner. At least a half-million people come through the park annually, including those who climb the lighthouse’s 217 steps to the top.

The lighthouse has been closed since March 14 for a complete exterior restoration including painting, masonry recoating and repairs to the brick façade, plus interior lantern steel platform repairs, roof repairs and the installation of new windows. The crowning light, thanks to the donation of the Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, will be a new beacon lens, ordered through a sales contact in Amsterdam.

Current safety fencing ensures the public can’t get inside or next to the lighthouse for the project duration, but the rest of the park is still open. That includes the jetty-side walkway, except for a portion closest to the lighthouse.

The last time the lighthouse was repainted was nine years ago. The new paint should last longer and also be conducive to a washing in 12 to 15 years, rather than the intensive removal and repainting undertaken now and requiring the scaffolding, project officials said.

“The last one (repainting) lasted about nine years and was looking pretty bad,” said Robert W. Russell of HMR Architects in Princeton. “We’re anticipating 12 to 15 years before it needs to be washed. And obviously, washing is a much easier operation than putting up scaffolding to take the paint off.”

Russell detailed for The SandPaper what makes the new paint different from the type that needed to be replaced.

“The paint that has been used on the lighthouse over many years has been kind of the standard paint; it doesn’t breathe,” he said. “The original builders of the lighthouse understood that the masonry of the lighthouse has to breathe and let the moisture that gets inside out. So, because of that, it has an inner wall and an outer wall. We’re taking all the paint off so it can breathe again.

“The new paint that we’re using is a different material that has generally been used in Europe for hundreds of years. It’s called a silicate coating, and it’s a breathable coating.

“It should have a longer life. It will breathe better and not produce as much mildew and other things. It should be washable in the future, without removing the paint, because obviously, removal of the paint is an extremely difficult, laborious project.”

Asked what constituted the biggest percentage of the $1.3-million price tag, Russell and another specialist answered in unison, “the scaffolding.” It was a $400,000 line item, said John Forgione, a construction manager with the state Department of Treasury, Division of Property Management and Construction.

The restoration project is funded by the corporate business tax. LaTourette repeatedly used the word “investment” when describing the project in terms of preserving the state’s resources for the future.

Another question focused on the Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse’s donation of a new lens for the beacon. “What will be the difference in the new light?” The answer is that viewers should see no difference.

“There will be no difference in the rotation,” answered the Friends incoming president, Chris Lane. “The intensity will be the same as the one we put in there previously,” he said, referring to a $15,000 lens that is Coast Guard approved and visible for 19 miles at sea. The nonprofit Friends donation enabled the lighthouse to be illuminated for the first time in 82 years when it was dedicated on Jan. 1, 2009, 150 years to the date when the lighthouse was first lit in 1859.

Asked why a new light is necessary, Lane alluded to damage from lightning strikes. “The old one was hit by a couple of the strikes, and we’ve been kind of putting it together with electricians’ help and we’ve gotten it to continue to work, but we’re going take the old one out … store that and use it for parts.”

For those who can’t visit the site in person this summer, Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse State Park has a website, friendsofbarnegatlighthouse.org, that contains photographs of the 2022 restoration. And its information starts with a detailed history of the lighthouse from the time a previous tower was built in 1834, before it fell into the sea 22 years later.

More information about Barnegat Lighthouse State Park can be found at the park’s official website, nj.gov.

“While the lighthouse will be closed to visitors, Barnegat Lighthouse State Park will continue to be open for fishing, hiking, birding and picnicking,” said John Cecil, assistant commissioner for state parks, forests and historic sites, who is supervising the project. “The park office, interpretive center, fisherman’s walkway and trails are open.”

LaTourette said, “I think that this investment represents, in part, the legacy that the Murphy administration is seeking to build in parks and forests and historic sites throughout the state of New Jersey, because when we invest in our public lands, when we invest in their good care and their improvement, we’re really making an investment in one another. Just as New Jerseyans in the past did in the development and building of Barnegat Lighthouse in the first place, not knowing exactly who it would serve but that at some point, maybe far into the future, some mariner may be in need of the shining light through the darkness, that is what we can do for one another today by investing in our public lands.”

Public lands “are always here for us,” LaTourette said, “but they don’t just take care of themselves, as this lighthouse shows. It needs our good care; it needs the investment of the resources to see its improvements through.”

“We’re going to do it around the state. Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, to the greenway – we’re about to make acquisition of, that will traverse 9 miles of open space in parts of Essex and Hudson counties – to Cape May Point, to High Point State Park, forests of the pines. All of these places need our stewardship and our investment.”

A final question raised the possibility of sea level rise affecting the lighthouse. “Is there any long-term plan to protect the lighthouse given that it’s basically on the water?”

“That’s a really important question,” the DEP commissioner replied. “We know that New Jersey is ground zero for some of the worst impacts of climate change, rising sea levels among them.

“What we are experiencing in New Jersey already is what I would call episodic flooding, some persistent sunny-day flooding in many parts of the coast. That’s going to be exacerbated by incremental sea level rise.

“We project a sea level rise of 2 feet by 2050 and 5 by 2100. So we need to be prepared for that. And as part of our climate resilience strategy and the coastal resilience plan that is within it, what we’re deploying is a decision support tool that helps us determine where to make and how to make investments in order to keep places like this safe and to make sure we are teeing up for resources that we’ll have to bring for discussion with our Legislature.

“So at this very moment, do we have a long-term resilience plan for this particular lighthouse? No, but it exists within a broader development of our coastal resilience plan.”

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