Due to steady and increasing erosion at the Gay Head Cliffs, the Gay Head Light will need to be moved in the next one to three years and could cost as much as $3 million to relocate, the Aquinnah board of selectmen learned this week. At the board’s weekly meeting on Tuesday, Martha’s Vineyard Museum director David Nathans said the move of the historic lighthouse is only a matter of time.

Cong. William Keating appealed directly to the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard this week to expedite the transfer of ownership of the Gay Head Light, which must be moved soon due to rapid erosion at the Gay Head Cliffs. In a letter to Adml. Robert J. Papp Jr. yesterday, Mr. Keating urged the Coast Guard to declare the lighthouse as excess property. This will allow the town of Aquinnah to apply for ownership of the property and begin to plan for the relocation of the tower.

The federal government formally declared the Gay Head Light surplus property Thursday, clearing the way for the town of Aquinnah to take ownership of the lighthouse which is now critically endangered due to erosion.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced in a ceremony at the Gay Head Cliffs Wednesday morning that it had named the Gay Head Light to its 2013 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Members of the Gay Head Lighthouse committee, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, selectmen from across the Island, U.S. Coast Guard and town residents gathered under the lighthouse to mark the announcement.