[UPDATE: Thursday, Oct. 18. Mayor Ben Cleveland has arranged for cranes. Irving Transportation will look after the lifting in Saint John and Tidal Boat Works boom truck plus a backhoe will do the lifting in Digby.]
The pier lighthouse will be home this Saturday.
Digby’s mayor Ben Cleveland has got the scallops, the trucking company and a place to put it for now.
As of Wednesday, he was still looking for cranes to lift the lighthouse onto a truck and to get it off on the Digby side.
Tidal Boat has volunteered their boom truck to assist with the lift in Digby.
Seaside Transportation of Saint John has donated their lowboy trailer and a crew to run it to move it to the ferry. Bay Ferries is allowing the lighthouse to travel for free.
The mayor didn’t actually get enough scallops but monetary donations will allow him to reach his goal of 200 pounds. Those are packed up and ready to head over to Saint John on Thursday and be passed on to three restaurants to prepare for the party on Friday, Oct. 19.
The mayor and anyone in Digby who wants to go will be going on board the 8 a.m. ferry Friday to Saint John. Bay Ferries is a group rate equal to ½ off return walk-on tickets for anyone attending the lighthouse party but their names must be registered with the mayor.
Everyone will be responsible for their own taxi ride downtown which the mayor says cost him $9 last week.
Saint John is hosting a party starting at noon with free hot dogs, hamburger and our scallops. They are having musical entertainment before the official handing over ceremony at 1:30 p.m.
After that, the big show starts—lifting the ferry onto the trailer and then squeezing it onto the Princess of Acadia.
There is 15’5” of clearance going on the ferry and the mayor estimates the lighthouse on the trailer will measure 15’1”.
The ferry should get into Digby about 2 a.m. The lighthouse won’t be going to the museum for storage as originally planned, but it will be set up on the wharf parking lot.
“We’ll do that at a reasonable hour Saturday morning,” says the mayor. “And get the crew back on the 4 p.m. ferry to Saint John.”
The Digby Pier Light was originally erected at the end of the pier in Digby in 1903. In the 1970s, when the pier was no longer being used, the Coast Guard moved the lighthouse to a depot in Saint John for storage.
jriley@digbycourier.ca
