NPS orders removal of Peck’s lighthouse

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG, NY — A lighthouse constructed and erected on a gravel bar in the Big Eddy by boat builder Art Peck was removed by order of the National Park Service(NPS).

“They told me it was a nuisance and had to be removed,” Peck said.

Peck, who constructed the plywood structure in his shop in the flats in Narrowsburg, had three friends help him remove it from land that belongs to Jim Stratton and Cass Collins.

“The NPS has jurisdiction over the water and not the land,” Collins said. “Art asked our permission before he put it there. We have no objection to it being there.”

“In the river valley we have two forces, God and the National Park Service,” Peck said. “The service, unlike God, has no sense of humor.”

Peck said he built the lighthouse and placed it temporarily in the Eddy in a spirit of fun. “We’ve had a serious flood and people are hurting,” he said. “This was a light-hearted thing for the fun of it.”

“It requires a permit to put any kind of structure on property along the river,” said Town of Tusten Code Enforcement Officer Dave Sparling. “I haven’t seen the structure, but it could be a problem if another flood comes and it lands on somebody else’s property or knocks down something.”

“We think that the lighthouse is inappropriate for the river valley,” said NPS Superintendent David Forney. “We feel that the Big Eddy should be preserved in its natural beauty.”