The Friends of Cuckolds Light Station announced Dec. 20 the National Park Service has granted an extension on Friends’ application to take custody of the island and the station. Plans for the island were temporarily dashed by the pandemic and the application was about to expire before FCLS lobbied Sen. Angus King’s office in May for help. FCLS Director Bruce White said efforts helped secure an extension as the 501 (c) (3) nonprofit works to fulfill requirements.

The NPS application has many facets including infrastructure, educational, environmental and maintenance, White said. “They sent a couple back to us for shoring up and we've in turn asked them for an extension which they've granted us. This is a very good back and forth communication system we have with them.”

The U.S. Coast Guard operated the lighthouse for navigators for over 100 years and in the 1970s dismantled the boathouse and keepers’ house designating the island as surplus property under the management of NPS. Southport residents launched the non-profit group Cuckolds Fog Signal and Light Station Council in 2004 to rebuild the original buildings and open them as a seasonal inn. The inn closed in 2019 and CFSLSC gave up the lease to FCLS which adopted the goal of opening the island to the public and offering educational and recreational programs in the summer.

White said the application is essentially a contract between FCLS and NPS in which custody of the island and its structures is transferred to FCLS indefinitely. “So, it needs to be rather detailed and things need to be spelled out. They're just asking us to spell out a few more things.”

As a part of the NPS’s process, FCLS will continue developing its programming, structures will undergo inspection and marketing will move forward with the help of Southport designer John Nunan of Nunan Creative. White said Nunan is working on a landing page for the Cuckolds Light Station website.

“There are a lot of hoops and the National Park Service is helping us step through them … We're hopeful it will be done by the spring so we can get this back to the public and get our programs going … So, this is definitely good news and it's definitely progressing in the right direction.”