A creative sentencing agreement will send two men to jail off and on for the next three years, while giving them the chance to make restitution for the damage they did to the

.

The deal should ultimately allow the lighthouse to fully reopen and once again welcome visitors to the tower that has graced these coastal headlands for more than 120 years.

David Wilks Jr. and Zachary Pyle pleaded guilty last week in Tillamook County Circuit Court to two counts of criminal mischief in the second degree for

that shattered 15 windows and the historic Fresnel lens that once shined from its top.

In a sentencing agreement hammered out between the judge, district attorney and defense attorneys, and approved by federal and state agencies, as well as a private non profit group, the two were sentenced to serve three 16-day stints in the Tillamook County Jail over the next three years and to make restitution totaling $100,000.

"I thought it was a very unique opportunity for these guys to give something back to the community," said Judge Charles E. Luukinen. "It was a win-win for these young men, but more importantly a win-win for the community."

Wilks, 27, and Pyle, 24, have already paid $68,000 of the restitution, the bulk of which will go to the Friends of the Cape Meares Lighthouse. They started their first stay in jail on Dec. 27 and are set to get out Jan. 11, then return for the same period in 2011 and again in 2012.

"The jail time was intended to coincide with the date of the incident a year ago," Luukinen said. "So as I told the two young gentlemen, 'Some people go to Hawaii for vacation and some people go to jail. The next three years will serve as a reminder and you are going to get some time to contemplate that.'"

The men could have also faced felony charges, but Luukinen said that would have cost them their jobs, which are categorized as hard-rock mining and fall under the supervision of the federal Department of Homeland Security. With no jobs, the possibility of restitution would have been greatly diminished.

"The idea was to not take that (their jobs) away because they had one stupid night and did some really stupid things," Luukinen said. "They took responsibility and said we deserve to have a penalty imposed."

Luukinen said the two men admitted they had been drinking "but they didn't use that as an excuse."

"They said it was the dumbest thing they ever did in their lives," he added.

The sentencing and restitution is the one bright spot in an otherwise dark story that began only days into the 120th anniversary celebration at the lighthouse.

A visitor to the Lighthouse discovered the damage on Jan. 9. Two days later, Bob Reed, past president of the Friends of the Cape Meares Lighthouse was allowed inside to see the damage.

"When those bullets hit that hand-ground glass made in France more than 120 years ago, it just shattered into thousands of pieces. Every step was crunch, crunch, crunch, like walking on Rice Krispies."

One month later, police arrested Wilks and Pyle and charged them with the crimes.

With the sentencing finished and the lighthouse saved, history has repeated itself, said Alicia Knowlton, president of the Friends of the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

"They almost tore the Cape Meares lighthouse down in the 1960s and the community saved it at that time," she said. "I felt with the resolution being in Tillamook, Tillamook saved it again. In all our different ways we came together to protect and preserve the rich history of the lighthouse."

The 15 shattered windows at the lighthouse have been replaced. The next goal is to use the restitution money to hire experts to stabilize the Fresnel (pronounced frah-NEL) lens so that visitors can again climb the 25 steps to the top of the tower – at 38-feet tall, the shortest on the Oregon Coast.

"It's one of the few lighthouses where you can go up and see the lens," said Pete Marvin, manager of the Cape Lookout Management Unit with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which manages the lighthouse for the

"I don't know how quickly that stabilization can be done. We have a historic structural engineer that will be handling that part of it. So we'll see. There may be a fair chance that it could be completed before the summer season."

Meanwhile, the Friends of Cape Meares are ready to move on, said Knowlton.

"The lighthouse is like a family member to us," said Knowlton. "It's been difficult for everybody. Now, we've got visitors coming in 2011 and we've got to figure out a plan. This chapter of the story is done. Let's move ahead."

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