St. George island Lighthouse Association gets grant for needed repairs from sales of visit our lights specialty license plate.

The St. George Island Lighthouse Association received a $24,000 grant from the Florida Lighthouse Association to assist in some much-needed repairs needed to the lighthouse. The lighthouse has several broken glass panes and significant rust on the bird cage of the lantern room and the masonry tower also requires some cleaning and painting.
The $24,000 grant comes from the Florida Lighthouse Association’s Gene Oakes License Plate Fund. This grant program is funded entirely by the Visit Our Lights license plate and used only for the preservation of Florida’s historic lighthouse stations.

Over $180,000 in grants were awarded to Florida lighthouses through this program in 2020
The lighthouse association has contracted with Razorback, LLC out of Tarpon Springs to handle the specialized repairs and the work is scheduled to begin in January.
The scope of work includes removing all of the glass and sandblasting and painting the bird cage with a special three paint process. After the rust mitigation and sandblasting of the bird cage is complete all new glass will be installed with enhanced window glazing and new rubber gasketing systems. The masonry tower will also be cleaned and painted during this timeframe.
The lighthouse will be closed for the month of January and potentially into the beginning of February to complete these repairs but the museum and gift shop will remain open. The total cost for the repairs is $94,000.

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