Group races to save lighthouse

With a crumbling shoreline threatening a lighthouse in eastern P.E.I., a local group is racing to raise the money necessary to move it.

Barrie Harris, part of group working to save the Cape Bear lighthouse and Marconi museum near Murray Harbour, told CBC News Friday the cliff below the building is falling away at a rate of about one metre a year.

"Within a year, we have to get it done," said Harris.

"I feel if we leave it any longer than a year, we're jeopardizing the lighthouse."

The Northumberland Community Development Corporation is in discussions with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to take over ownership of the building and move it.

'If we leave it any longer than a year, we're jeopardizing the lighthouse.' Barrie Harris

As part of the process, the coast guard surveyed commercial and recreational boaters in the area. Harris said the commercial fishermen are fine with the lighthouse being moved, but recreational boaters still want a navigation light at Cape Bear.

The coast guard has agreed to install a light on a steel tower to replace the lighthouse.

But the community development corporation needs to raise more than $100,000 in order to move the old structure.

The group has already determined where the lighthouse will go: a 32-hectare parcel of land called Bill of the Cape. Harris said the new site has a spectacular view and more room.

"If it was located here, then we could bring in the tour buses and I think we could broaden our clientele base," he said.

Harris hopes his group can take over ownership of the lighthouse soon, so plans for the move can officially begin.