COURT HOUSE – Locked lighthouse doors and boxes of property sent to storage are the points of a lawsuit filed by the Friends of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse against the City of North Wildwood. In a preliminary hearing Jan. 24 before Superior Court Judge John Porto, the Friends’ attorney Frank Corrado argued that the city breached the management contract by locking the Friends out before their lease expired Dec. 31. He also argued the Friends have a right to their items that the city boxed and sent to a Burleigh storage unit. Defense attorney William Kaufmann said the city only boxed up items from the lighthouse gift shop and basement and that they tried to set up a time for the Friends to look through all of the approximately 30 boxes. Kaufmann said the city would finish its catalog of the lighthouse’s artifacts by mid-February. The state, which owns the lighthouse, has not taken a side on the lawsuit.
