Historical Society anticipates lighthouse reopening

The St. Joseph Historical Society kicked off its annual dinner last Friday night with some promising news on the Cape San Blas lighthouse.

Historical Society president Charlotte Pierce said she had spoken with Gulf County Commissioner Warren Yeager the previous night, and Yeager expressed hope that lighthouse climbs could be resumed in the near future.

Citing potential insurance liabilities, the County Commission voted last August to suspend lighthouse climbs until a suitable agreement was worked out with Eglin Air Force Base, which owns the lighthouse land, and the Coast Guard, which owns the structure.

The historical society currently has a verbal agreement with the county commission to oversee gift shop and tower operations.

The society charged $5 per tour of the lighthouse tower, and was raking in a respectable sum when the commission suspended operations last summer.

“(Yeager) is working very hard to get it resolved,” said Pierce. “Hopefully, in the next couple weeks, we’ll have some good news.”

Society member Beverly Mount-Douds, who mans the lighthouse’s Sleeping Beauty gift shop, reported 37 visitors to the lighthouse last Friday.

Mount-Douds has a special interest in the lighthouse’s reopening.

For months, she’s been meeting with fellow volunteers from lighthouses in Carrabelle, St Marks and St. George Island to prepare for the Lighthouse Challenge on April 24 and 25.

The challenge is an effort to promote area lighthouses by encouraging visitors to climb all four lighthouses during the two-day event.

Those who accomplish the feat will receive a commemorative button emblazoned with the words “I survived the Forgotten Coast Lighthouse Challenge.”

Mount-Douds said the Gulf and Franklin County Tourist Development Councils and  Florida Lighthouse Association have provided funds for the challenge.

The annual dinner, held at the Gulf County Association for Retard Citizens building in Port St. Joe’s Industrial Park, allowed the historical society to reflect on the work of the past year and name officers for 2010.

Pierce offered special kudos to society member Clarence Monette, whose Knights of Pythias civic organization has compiled an extensive collection of obituaries from the primarily African-American community known as “North Port St. Joe.”

“You ought to see the number of three-ring binders, with obituaries going back for many years,” noted Pierce. “It’s phenomenal the history they have in that.”

The dinner honored former historical society member Minnetta Louise Niblack, who passed away last December.

Niblack, who was a longtime Port St. Joe teacher and librarian, also served admirably as the historical society’s treasurer for many years.

“She had the neatest little coffee can that she kept the keys and everything else in,” recalled Pierce, who honored Niblack’s faithful service to the society.

Judge Robert Bryant presided over the installation of the 2010 historical society officers.

Pierce will remain president, with Lynda Bordelon serving as vice president, Linda Wood as recording secretary, Pam Lawrence as corresponding secretary, Pauline Pendarvis as treasurer and Paula Boone as parliamentarian.

After a shrimp and chicken dinner prepared by ARC employees, members and guests listened intently to the keynote address, delivered by Port St. Joe city attorney Russell Scholz.

Scholz said he’d been asked to speak on the Constitution, but narrowed his remarks to recent Supreme Court decisions impacting freedom of speech.

Scholz’s remarks proved timely. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, one of the cases detailed by Scholz, received a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama on Saturday.

The 5-4 decision overturned two previous decisions and revised parts of a 63-year-old law prohibiting companies and unions from using their own money to produce campaign ads in support or opposition to political candidates.

Obama called the decision “devastating to the public interest,” and said it had the practical effect of opening “the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy.”