More Objections To Removing The Roundhouse

Yesterday we posted about how the 77-year-old roundhouse that sits just off the tip of the Manhattan Beach peninsula is going to be removed. The roundhouse has been a navigational aid that longtime sailors in our area have relied on.  The mariners in our community are very against its removal.

Sailor and community activist Stan Kaplan e-mailed us yesterday to elaborate on why keeping the roundhouse is imperative.

I am advocating for keeping the Roundhouse. As my point of view has been published, I am attaching The US Coast Guard’s current “Notice to Mariners.”
On page 5 at the top, it suggests that using floating aids to navigation can have “varying degrees of reliability.”  It also suggests to “utilize bearings from fixed objects and aids to navigation on shore”  is much more reliable.
It is my understanding that the Roundhouse is in shallow water. To make safe passage, it will have to be dredged. As it has been suggested, a floating aid to navigation, a.k.a. a BUOY, will have varying degrees of reliability. It would be prudent for the Corp of Army Engineers to put a tower as a replacement. The Roundhouse is a large masonry structure that boats will avoid. This structure has been there for over 70 years, and it will probably last another 70.

View the Coast Guard’s Notice to Mariners [pdf].