Beacon

WHEREVER I WENT during my eight days in Monrovia when Liberia's transitional government was being installed, I was besieged by people -- newspaper vendors, politicians and business people -- demanding to know not if but when I would return to resume publication of the newspaper, The Daily Observer. That experience in October presented me with a real and serious challenge: to ensure the newspaper is on the market again soon after nearly 15 years of dormancy. The Daily Observer survived five closures, several staff imprisonments and two arson attacks.

Preservationists were celebrating yesterday now that the Annapolis city council has voted to take possession of the historic Thomas Point Lighthouse, completing a months-long process to acquire the Chesapeake Bay landmark. The council voted 7-2 late Monday to take title of the lighthouse from the federal government in the next few months. The city then will lease the building to the nonprofit United State Lighthouse Society. The Annapolis Maritime Museum will manage the lighthouse. Alderwomen Sheila M. Tolliver and Louise Hammond voted against the resolution because, they said, they didn't like the language of the legal paperwork and feared the city could be held liable in lawsuits.

Preservationists were celebrating yesterday now that the Annapolis city council has voted to take possession of the historic Thomas Point Lighthouse, completing a months-long process to acquire the Chesapeake Bay landmark. The council voted 7-2 late Monday night to take title of the lighthouse from the federal government in the next few months. The city then will lease the building to the nonprofit United State Lighthouse Society. The Annapolis Maritime Museum will manage the lighthouse.

On November 12, 2003, KENNETHEUGENE; beloved husband of Faye Pass (nee Hinds); devoted father of Rhondal E., Kenneth L., Donald R. and Lonnie E. Pass and Judith A. Tora; loving brother of Marie McCoy and Peggy Brown. Also survived by ten grandchildren. Friends may call at the CONNELLY FUNERAL HOME OF DUNDALK, P.A, 7110 Sollers Point Road, on Friday, 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services will be held at Beacon Baptist Church, 5700 Ranelagh Road, White Marsh, on Saturday 11 A.M. Interment Holly Hill Memorial Gardens.

Home insurance companies are searching through their customers for the ones they want to keep: those who file few claims or, better yet, none at all. Rising construction costs, weather losses, and a poor investment climate have made insurance companies wary of anyone who files claims with any frequency. At most companies, that's anyone who files more than one claim every eight years, the industry average. By that definition, James and June McCloy of Rockport, Mass., were positively claim-crazy.

AMID THE wreckage of the Havre de Grace promenade in the wake of Tropical Storm Isabel was one structure that remained unscathed by the battering wind and rain. That's not much of a surprise, though: The Concord Point Lighthouse, a conical stone tower about 36 feet high, was made to withstand nature's worst. Built in 1827, the lighthouse is not only a draw for sightseers and historians, it's also a monument to the shipping lines that helped build Maryland. Still standing at the junction of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, Concord Point is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in Maryland.

COROLLA, N.C. - High above the marshy grasses of the Outer Banks, visitors linger on the black-iron deck of the 128-year-old Currituck Beach Lighthouse, snapping landscape photos of the Atlantic Ocean and Currituck Sound. They've scaled 214 steps for this view and want to enjoy every possible angle. "It's so peaceful up here," says Felisa Hiteshew, a resident of Columbia, Md., who is here on vacation. Down below, not everything is so trouble-free. As the federal government seeks to transfer up to 300 lighthouses to new owners over the next decade, an unusual battle has developed over control of the red-brick lighthouse.

ON August 30, 2003 JOHN VAN DOREN NIELD, formerly of Baltimore, in Concord, MA. Husband of the late Patricia Randolph (nee Barton); father of Tom Nield and his wife Eleanor of Concord, MA; grandfather of John Robert Nield, Robert William Nield and the late Dennis Sweeney NieldGraveside Service Tuesday, September 9 at 10 A.M., at Druid Hill Cemetery. Gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to Perkins School for the Blind, 175 North Beacon St., Watertown, MA 02472.

Question: While I was refinancing my mortgage recently, my bank pulled credit scores from three sources. The scores were referred to as Beacon Score, Fair Isaac Model Score and Empirica Score. My Fair Isaac was 775 while my Empirica was 776. However, my Beacon was 608. Fortunately, this did not affect the rate I'm receiving for the refi, but I was surprised that there was such a discrepancy between Beacon and the other two. Is that unusual? Do they each have their own formula for determining your score?

Word that Thomas Point Lighthouse - one of the most recognizable symbols of the Chesapeake Bay - would be up for grabs this summer generated interest from nearly a dozen groups, including one as far away as Maine. But just one application for the historic iron-framed lighthouse arrived Monday at the National Park Service building in Washington, hand-delivered by the vice president of the U.S. Lighthouse Society on behalf of that group and its Annapolis partners. "This seems like it will be an absolutely wonderful consortium," said Dan Smith of the park service.