The Aquinnah select board provided updates on Gay Head Lighthouse concerns and finalized an agreement with State Police during a meeting Wednesday.

Select board member and lighthouse keeper Chris Manning said the U.S. Coast Guard removed the newly installed Gay Head Lighthouse LED beacon on Monday to correct its rotation and beam pattern at the agency's shop in Woods Hole.

“We shouldn’t see them again in a little while – not that we don’t like seeing them – but they’ve been here quite a few times over the last few months,” Mr. Manning said.

The LED beacon was installed by the Coast Guard in June – the final step of a seven-month long restoration project to repair structural issues in the curtain wall and lantern deck. It is UV-sensitive and turns on only when it’s dark and restores the longstanding flash pattern: three whites followed by a red.

Over the course of the summer, Aquinnah residents raised concerns about the beam’s rotation direction, which is opposite of how the light has spun for decades, random gaps between flashes, dimness of the beams and the lantern’s inability to shine during the day.

Mr. Manning said the Coast Guard was only able to fix the beam’s rotation direction and correct the flashing characteristic. Since the beacon is UV-sensitive Mr. Manning said the beacon is still not able to shine during the day when there’s heavy fog.

“That’s just the way that the light is designed so it cannot overheat and burn out the electronic components inside,” he said. 

Mr. Manning said though the beams appear more dim from land, the Coast Guard said the light is stronger from out at sea.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Aquinnah Police Chief Randhi Belain told the board that the state police and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) entered into an agreement allowing state troopers to respond to calls on tribal lands. Select board chair Juli Vanderhoop also signed the agreement. 

“[The agreement] is really between the state police and the tribe,” Chief Belain said. “We’re just kind of signatories… [the agreement] resides within our town.”

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) currently does not have any tribal rangers. State police needed the legal authority to respond to calls on their lands since the department is filling shifts for the town. 

The Aquinnah police department has been understaffed in recent months after it lost three of the four officers due to a retirement, medical emergency and an officer leaving to work for West Tisbury. The select board did not provide an update on their request to the Chilmark police department for help filling shifts.