By Jim Linette
Work crews with contractor Razorback LLC arrived on June
17 to begin a rehabilitation project on the Sanibel Lighthouse.
Razorback submitted the low bid on the project of
$269,563, which was approved by City Council in May. The city had budgeted
$300,000 for the project from its beach parking fund and also received a
$50,000 state historical preservation grant from the Florida Division of
Historical Resources, reducing the city’s portion to $219,563.
The road leading to the lighthouse will be closed during
the project from the fishing pier parking lot to the lighthouse. Work is
expected to continue through September.
According to the Public Works director Keith Williams
Razorback LLC will replace sections of deteriorated steel exposed to the
elements. The two keeper cottages at the site are not included as part of this
project.
Constructed in 1884 on Sanibel’s eastern point as the
first lighthouse on Florida’s Gulf Coast north of Key West and the Dry
Tortugas, it marks the entrance to San Carlos Bay for ships calling at the port
of Punta Rassa across the bay from Sanibel Island. The lighthouse was placed on
the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and the Department of the
Interior Bureau of Land Management turned the property over to the city of
Sanibel in April 2010.
The exterior of the lighthouse was last cleaned and
painted in the 1990s.
A consulting engineering firm was hired to prepare plans
for the rehabilitation project before competitive bids were sought. In all, 11
contractors submitted bids for the project with the highest bid coming in at
more than $600,000.
Sanibel-Captiva Islander (June 26, 2013)
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