Barnegat Lighthouse will blaze again

BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. - For the first time in 80 years, the historic Barnegat Lighthouse will provide a beacon for mariners off New Jersey's coast when a new $15,000 Fresnel lens is lit tonight.

Thousands of people are expected for the New Year's Day event, which will begin with the lighting at 5 p.m. and proceed in a rather low-key manner with a few speeches and a chorus of bagpipes. Local officials had hoped to provide fireworks but couldn't get state approval.

"The new light will really be the star of the show," said Angelo Rinaldi, president of the Friends of Barnegat Lighthouse, which raised about $35,000 for the new lens and replacement of 48 windows, which had become scratched and discolored over the 50 years since the panes were last replaced.

"Old Barney" may be New Jersey's most famous lighthouse, attracting more visitors than any of the state's other nine original lighthouses, including Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City and Cape May Lighthouse.

Standing like a brick giant at the northern tip of Long Beach Island, the 165-foot-tall landmark has attracted crowds for more than a century.

When it was first lit - 150 years ago today - hundreds of people braved a particularly cold winter's night and traveled on foot, by horse and buggy and by boat to glimpse what was a marvel for its time. The newfangled Fresnel lens installed then - costing $15,000 then as well - provided light that was 100 percent more intense than the previous beacon, which was a series of lanterns filled with whale oil.

Just the prospect of relighting the lighthouse, which the Coast Guard snuffed out in 1927, brought more than 7,000 people to tiny Barnegat Light Borough in October when the friends group hosted a daylong celebration. There were marching bands, lectures, an essay contest for schoolchildren and tours of the red-and-white landmark.

"I was very surprised so many people came out," Rinaldi said. "I thought there might be two or three thousand at the most. But when 7,000 people came out, we knew then that everyone is really, really excited about it being relit. People are just mesmerized by lighthouses."

Rinaldi has received dozens and dozens of phone calls from people all over the United States who plan to attend the relighting, he said.

"It's going to be exciting," said Barnegat Light Borough Mayor Kirk Larson, a commercial fishing boat captain. "We just hope it doesn't shine too much in anyone's bedroom windows."

Getting the new lens approved wasn't an easy task, for either town officials or the Friends of Barnegat Light, Larson said.

Some residents did, indeed, worry the new lens would create light pollution. And funding was an issue because the lighthouse is located within a state park, and crash-strapped New Jersey made it clear it could provide no money.

Then the Coast Guard insisted that any new light be an actual aid to navigation, not just a representation of a lighthouse beacon.

"That added to our expense a bit," said Rinaldi, noting that the 100-watt, 42-pound VRB-25 light, imported from New Zealand and installed in October, meets all Coast Guard requirements.

Although today's ceremony will begin precisely at 5 p.m., in the long run, the beacon will be placed on a sensor timer that will come on at dusk each day and shut off at dawn.

Besides paying for the new lamp, the friends group had to raise enough cash to replace the scratched Plexi-glass windows in the beacon room atop the lighthouse. Individuals, groups and businesses made donations. Among the most generous - $20,000 - came from the Barnegat Light Borough Fraternal Order of Police Local Lodge No. 5, Rinaldi said.

If the old windows hadn't been replaced, the new Fresnel lens would have created a bounce-back "explosion of light" every 10 seconds - each time the beacon reflected off the damaged panes.

So 48 new polycarbonate windows, which resist scratching and discoloration, were installed in November, Rinaldi said.

"Now it's so clear you can see the clouds going by in the background when you look up at the lighthouse. It's just beautiful," he said.

.