ROCKLAND — The Maine Lighthouse Museum reopened Thursday, March 23. The soft opening saw a few people attending, but one staff member said there was still a lot of boxes to empty and things to be put on shelves. No mistaking, though, was the fact that the museum houses the largest collection of U.S. Coast Guard artifacts in the nation.

Paul Conlin serves on the Board of Directors for the museum. He said the museum will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Memorial Day.

"We're looking forward to a very good year," he said. "We're moving forward, straightening things out and looking forward to raising some money to better us. There will be some new exhibits coming through and we're always looking for volunteers to help set them up."

Conlin said there would be an open house at some point, but it had not been set up, yet. 2015 saw the museum fall on hard times. Conlin said they are over that hurdle.

"We've been meeting with the Coast Guard and getting things worked out," he said. "We support everything they do."

Rockland City Manager James Chaousis said the museum and the city have been working with the Coast Guard on a long term artifact loan. The artifact loan is with the city and Rockland subleases it to the museum. 

"Right now it seems promising," he said. "Everybody has been working pretty hard to get it together."

Last year, the building that houses the museum had trouble.

"I think there still are and always will be issues with the building," Chaousis said. "There are always issues with the funding mechanism, but I think that this city and the museum and the Coast Guard all understand the variables better now."

The museum's artifact loan actually comes from the city.

"The city has the artifact loan with the Coast Guard," Chaousis said. "So the loan of the artifacts is from the from the city. We want to continue to have that relationship, so it's implied that we want to have it there and that they do well."

The museum houses a large collection of Fresnel lenses and lighthouse artifacts, life saving and Coast Guard memorabilia.

"Especially Maine lighthouses, their history and the keepers," Conlin said. "We try to display the most information, pictures and artifacts that we can. Like I said, we are always looking for people to help with the day to day operation of the museum."

Conlin lives in Massachusetts, but has always followed the lighthouse displays.

"Originally I was the secretary of the American Lighthouse Association which was out of Wells," he said. "Then they moved to Rockland and I came with it. Ken Black's original collection started in the base of Boston Light. When he moved it up here it started as a collection in the Coast Guard building. That grew so much they moved to Limerick Street to the Shore Village Museum. When the city decided to sell that property we found a new home on the waterfront and we've been here going on 11 years now."

The Maine Lighthouse Museum reopened on Thursday, March 24. It will operate Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Memorial Day weekend before expanding their hours for the summer.