Lighthouse work begins at last

Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke and six fourth-graders from schools in the city — mayors for the day — braved cool temperatures, gusty winds and showers last Thursday to walk onto the breakwater.

They didn’t make it all the way to the end of the breakwater, but they came prepared to formally mark the beginning of one of Neitzke’s key initiatives, restoration of the city’s iconic 1935 lighthouse.

Armed with paint rollers, the group stood on the breakwater just a day before TMI Coatings, the contractor for the restoration project, dropped off a barge at the marina to be used for the project.

The city closed the east end of the breakwater beginning at the east end of the steel-celled portion of the structure Friday to facilitate work on the lighthouse.

While the most visible part of the project will be the painting of the lighthouse, it won’t be the first phase of the project.

Instead, the initial phase will include replacing and repairing the lighthouse windows, repairing the concrete on which the structure stands and preparing the lighthouse for its new coat of paint.

Painting the lighthouse is one of the most challenging aspects of the project. The existing paint is lead based, and remediation is costly.

Lead paint chips can’t be allowed to fall into the water, and the city can’t just cover the 63-foot-tall lighthouse while doing the work because it is a navigational aid and the light needs to be exposed all the time.

And while it may seem easy to remove the paint, prime the lighthouse and paint it, it’s not that simple.

That’s because the moisture in the air will start corroding the metal structure quickly — so quickly that the structure can’t be left unpainted even overnight or it will begin to corrode and the paint will peel in a short time, according to Legacy Architects, the city’s consultant on the project.

The restoration work, which is expected to be completed in October, is especially fitting given the fact this is the 90th anniversary of construction of the lighthouse.

While the need for the work has been apparent for years, finding the funding for it has stymied the project until now.

“This is a hill I will die on,” Neitzke said when the project was not included in the city’s 2024 budget.
“The city made a commitment. It is not in the condition we promised the (federal) government we would keep it in.”

But last year the city received a Transportation Alternative Program grant for historic building preservation from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that will cover $2.2 million of the estimated $2.6 million cost.

Private fundraisers were held to support the project when the city acquired the structure in 2018, raising about $40,000 that officials have said will likely be spent to upgrade the lighting and improvements not covered by the grant.

The lighthouse has been a symbol of the city for decades, a navigational fixture that has been used by both government and businesses in their logos.

But it has fallen into disrepair since the city acquired it from the federal government in 2018 despite a city pledge to maintain the structure.

The lighthouse, which was built for $38,000 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, consists of a metal Art Deco tower that rests on a 20-foot-square cement base that has large arches on each of its faces so it doesn’t obstruct the view of mariners using the harbor.

Since it was built, the distinctive lighthouse has been a symbol of Port Washington, used on everything from the city’s logo to postcards.