Digital Extra

"Station Point Judith is being reevaluated" and "may in fact stay at its present level through Sept. 30," a spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Glenn Rosenholm, said yesterday from Boston. He said the rescue of the crew of the tug Scandia before the spill was a factor in the decision.

Rosenholm said the Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Robert E. Kramek, made the decision. Kramek also decided that staffing at Castle Hill in Newport will remain at 33, and that the Block Island station, which operates only weekends from May to September, will be reduced from 6 to 4.

Castle Hill had been slated to grow from 33 to 35, under a reorganization the Coast Guard was considering.

"No station that [currently] has search-and-rescue coverage will have a decrease in those services," at least during this budget year, Rosenholm said. The federal budget runs until Sept. 30.

Rosenholm said Point Judith has a normal staff of 23, with 18 assigned to "duty status" for search-and-rescue operations. Castle Hill has 28 of its 33 assigned to that duty.

That figure of 23 for Point Judith appeared to contradict the earlier number of 29 that Coast Guard officials in Washington used early last month, but that is because the 6 who cover Block Island on summer weekends are from the Point Judith station.

Last month, the Coast Guard said the Point Judith station probably would be open only seasonally, and that its staff of 29 probably would be reduced to 10, with the staff housed at the boathouse at Galilee.

The service also said earlier that the lighthouse and foghorn at Point Judith would be automated and the radio room "watch" would be eliminated because the same task is being done at Castle Hill.

Also under the reorganization plan, which appears to be in limbo at least for this summer, Point Judith would become a Castle Hill substation.

Todd Andrews, a spokesman for Rep. Jack Reed, whose district includes Point Judith, said Reed is "pleased that the commandant is still weighing this decision" on what to do at Point Judith.