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President's Remarks Newsletter of The New Dungeness Light Station Association A non-profit Historical Organization VOLUME XXV President’s Remarks NUMBER 2 August 2018 Tale of the NDLSA Beach Access Road Saga (Soon to be a major Hollywood Movie and Best Selling Novel) Inside this issue: Background President’s Most, if not all, of our NDLSA Members know about and may have actually ridden 1 Remarks in the NDLSA beach transport vehicles out to the Light House. Our vehicles access the beach through the private property at the end of West Anderson Road Editor’s 2 Comments near the bluffs north of Sequim. That access uses the narrow gravel driveway that President’s separates the house from the carport structures and Remarks 3 then winds around the backside of the house and (continued) continues down the steep narrow driveway to the beach access where it meets the pedestrian trail that Annual Report 5 comes down from the USFWS parking lots. Dense vegetation and brush along the gravel driveway “Old” Dungeness 8 Lighthouse screen much of the view showing the steepness of side slopes to the adjacent creek. This is the only Free Delivery 9 vehicular access that the NDLSA has to transport Keepers and even maintenance equipment and Furnishings 10 materials to and from the Light Station. In addition, it is the primary vehicular access for emergency response vehicles. We pay the property owner a monthly fee for the access and use From the Logs 12 of that driveway and, as may be necessary and appropriate, we perform minor maintenance such as brush trimming and additional gravel road base. The NDLSA Hams on the Spit 14 Board of Directors has been very aware and sensitive to the critical importance of this access to our ability to perform our Coast Guard lease requirements and Merchandise 15 obligation to operate, maintain and preserve the New Dungeness Light Station. Indeed, it is critical to the continued existence of the NDLSA and even the continued existence of the New Dungeness Light Station itself. Event Description On the evening of April 16th Chad Kaiser, our General Manager, received a phone call from the property owner informing us that the access driveway had been flooded by water from the adjacent property and that part of the access driveway behind their house had been washed away. It was quickly determined that there had been a pipe or valve failure in an adjacent irrigation system that had run unabated for approximately 16 hours. The water had run around the (continued page 3) The FOGHORN - August 2018 Page 2 The official newsletter of the Editor’s Comments New Dungeness Light Station Association P.O. Box 1283, Sequim, WA 98382 360.683.6638 The ink was barely dry on the spring issue of the Foghorn, in which we discussed potential uses BOARD OF DIRECTORS of the landing craft known as the Paradigm, when, Tom Sinton President unfortunately, one became true. As you read through this edition, you will see just how important that 360.460.1904 vessel became when our access road to the Sarah Miller 1st Vice Pres. Dungeness Spit washed out making it impossible to Treasurer Elect make transports with out four-wheel-drive trucks. As 206.947.1347 a relatively new member of the board I continue to Greg MacDonald 2nd Vice Pres. be amazed at the foresight of current and former 360.565.5532 members of the board when it comes to planning for Diana Sorus Secretary the perpetual maintenance of our iconic lighthouse. 425.248.7147 Legacies Bill Bjorklund Treasurer 360.681.5161 As the children of depression era parents, my wife Helen and I have always been savers. Perhaps that MEMBERS is also true of some of you. As we now wend our way Julie Bacher 360-698-7226 into the “golden years” (whoever thought that one Marsha Holden 360.681.8814 up?) we find ourselves planning for the inevitable. Janet Jones 360.582.9134 One of the things that we have been investigating is Bob Larsen 360.681.0577 how best to leave something to, not only the Jim Moran 206.387.8859 children, but also to our “community,” which includes the NDLSA. The simple answer would be to write a check, but come to find out other options are also available and may actually be better for you, and RECORDING SECRETARY your heirs. Of particular interest is the ability to have Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from IRAs JoAnn Hamilton paid directly to qualified non-profits-- NDLSA is one. Such distributions are tax free, i.e. you do not have TRANSPORTATION to pay the taxes that would normally be due on the amount of such a distribution—the portion given to Bob Larsen 360.681.0577 the non-profit and the non-profit does not pay taxes SCHEDULING & MEMBERSHIP on the gift. Gifts like this can be made at any time Chad Kaiser, Gen. Mgr. 360.683.6638 and you can designate how you would like the gift E-mail: spent or have it go to the general operational fund. You can also place instructions in your will donating [email protected] IRAs—or a portion thereof—to a non-profit. In that case your heirs will be spared paying the taxes due FOGHORN EDITORS on those IRAs. The NDLSA is currently in the Greg MacDonald process of establishing an endowment fund for the Tom Sinton long-term needs of restoring and maintaining the lighthouse. However, you do not need to wait for that REPORTER AT LARGE paperwork to be finalized to take advantage of an Jean Reed 360.385.4245 IRA gift. Email: [email protected] Finally, thanks to all of our photographers this month: Rick DeWitt, Marsha Holden, Wolfgang Kneidl, Chad Web: Kaiser, Greg MacDonald and Scott Templin. www.newdungenesslighthouse.com Greg MacDonald The FOGHORN - August 2018 Page 3 (President, continued from page 1) house and partway down the driveway, resulting in a 50 plus foot long section of driveway to slide down the slope about 40 vertical feet, leaving only enough of the original driveway for a narrow foot path. The photographs included with this narrative are good, but really do not capture how dramatic the washout really is. And starting then, as the stories say – all heck broke out. We went into full scramble mode with one or more meetings a day with the owner, various engineers, contactors, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, County Planners, and insurance representatives for the Irrigation District. We also held internal NDLSA meetings and at least three “emergency” NDLSA BOD Meetings. We quickly confirmed there was not going to be a “quick” fix and that the repair would require full engineering and geotechnical investigations and boundary and topographical surveys, with initial repair timeline projections being toward the end of 2018. UTVs After review of all the information we had available to us at the end of April, we determined the only viable and sustainable option for transporting the Keepers to and from the Light Station was to acquire beach capable vehicles similar to those used by USFWS for their access, referred to as UTVs. What we settled on is a “Ranger” model manufactured by Polaris with a capacity of one driver and five passengers per vehicle. By acquiring two of the Rangers, it provides us with the capability to transport eight Keepers out and back for each transfer, which is the Maximum number of Keepers we currently allow to stay at the Keeper Quarters. The Rangers that were ordered were “enhanced” with full exterior panels with glass windows, doors, roof and side panels to make them weather proof for the benefit of Keepers during inclement weather. In addition, they include winches and each one has a 4 foot by 6-foot trailer. So far, the trailers, combined with the little “pickup” bed on each Ranger, have been adequate to transport all of the Keeper provisions. The total purchase price for both vehicles was about $53,000. Chad Kaiser and Rick DeWitt both had completed the USFWS Training for certification to use UTVs and they provided driver services for the initial Keeper transfers starting on June 2nd and training for other UTV drivers. One additional benefit of having the Ranger vehicles is worth noting: The NDLS uses a septic tank and leach field to handle the sewage requirements of the Light House. About five years ago, we realized that it was costing about $10,000 or more a year to have the septic tank serviced (pumped), if we were able to find a barge and septic truck combination that would even agree to pump for us. We investigated the options and decided we could buy the required pumps, and a transport tank mounted on a trailer and service our own septic tank. Ever since we have hauled the trailer mounted tank from the Lighthouse to West Anderson Road with our truck where we would have a regular septic service truck meet us and empty out our trailer mounted tank. We have been doing that successfully since then and saving significant costs. However, with the loss of our beach access, we had no way to service the septic tank and were getting uncomfortably past our planned service time. (continued page 4) The FOGHORN - August 2018 Page 4 (President, continued from page 3) This meant a growing danger of overloading the septic system and then potentially dealing with some extensive and a very expensive rebuild. One additional, but very important immediate benefit of acquiring two of the Ranger vehicles was that by hooking them together we were able to successfully transport enough of the sewage out to remove the immediate danger, and we will do another run in October to get us back on the regular service timing schedule.
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