Land Use
Lighthouses
The Maine Lights Program, an effort conceived of and led by Peter Ralston, the Island Institute’s Executive Vice-President, resulted in a truly historic, landmark preservation accomplishment: the successful transfer, completed during an astonishingly short two-year period, of 36 Maine lighthouses from the federal government to other federal and Maine departments or agencies, Maine municipalities, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and community-development organizations.
In This Section
Signed into law by President Clinton on October 19, 1996, the Coast Guard Authorization Act, with its Maine Lights provision, was an unprecedented feat and remains a model of what Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, sponsor of the bill, called, “good government at its best…born of collaboration, cooperation and consultation.”
