Note, just because I see "State Subsidy Needed" in the
text below, I don't think the concept is espoused by
Socialists, as is implied by a recent thread...

(Neither do I think we need a Battleship emulator,
nor can maintenance by outsourced to India.)

Reformatted.  Took darn good guesses where the paragraphs are.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mahan] Famed Battleship USS New Jersey Needs More Tourists,
Funds to Stay Afloat
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 09:34:54 -0800

All Aboard?

Famed Battleship USS New Jersey Needs More Tourists, Funds to Stay Afloat
By Geoff Mulvihill
The Associated Press

C A M D E N, N.J., Feb. 19 The USS New Jersey, the most decorated U.S.
battleship and a Navy fixture from World War II through the first Gulf
War, is in its second mighty battle since it was decommissioned for
good in 1991.

 From 1998 through 2000, political leaders and local boosters quibbled
over whether the biggest of the Iowa-class battleships should spend
its Naval retirement as a tourist attraction across from New York
City or across from Philadelphia.

In a triumph for southern New Jersey  a region that sees itself as
an eternal underdog  the Navy awarded the formerly nuclear
warhead-equipped gray battleship to Camden in 2000.

It's been open to the public there as a floating museum for a little
over two years now. But it has been drawing only a little more than
half its initial goal of 300,000 visitors per year.

The new battle is to attract more visitors and keeping from sinking
financially.

State Subsidy Needed

Troy Collins, the attraction's chief executive officer, says it's come
to this for the ship: If it can get a state operating subsidy of $1.5
million  roughly the size of the ship's deficit for each of its first
two complete years  it can become a far better museum.

If not, it will be a boat open to the public, but without many special
programs or ambitions.

Last fall  less than a year after a corporate reorganization  the ship
laid off 13 employees. More cuts will be made later this year to the
museum's staff of 85 if state help doesn't arrive, Collins said.

Patricia Egan Jones, the Camden County surrogate and a co-chair of the
Home Port Alliance, the nonprofit group that oversees the New Jersey,
said unusually
nasty weather over the past year has kept would-be visitors away and
the lack of state help has made the ship's money problems worse.

In 2002, the state canceled a promised $7.2 million operating subsidy.
At that point, officials said they weren't upset with the state government,
which was in a budget crisis, largely because the state had helped with
moving the vessel from Washington state to its new home. "We got the ship
and everyone believed the work was done," Collins said, "But the ship was
just starting."

'Big Hunks of Metal'

The USS New Jersey is one of the key pieces in efforts to turn Camden's
former industrial waterfront into a Mecca for tourists. Before it came
an aquarium, a minor-league baseball stadium, an amphitheater, a children's
garden and a marina.  An aquarium expansion, an IMAX theater and at least
two restaurants are scheduled to open in 2005.

Camden is hardly the first to put a decommissioned Naval ship on its shore.
There are about 120 similar ship museums across the United States.

While it's rare for any to close because of financial problems, it's also
hard for the ships to do well financially.

Jack Green, a public affairs officer at the Naval Historical Center in
Washington, D.C., said the cost of keeping the ships, well, ship-shape,
with relatively small staffs and armies of volunteers, is a major obstacle.
"Historic ships are facing a lot of the problems that any museum is facing
except that they're big hunks of metal living in saltwater," Green said.
Indeed, during World War II, more than 2,000 sailors were aboard to keep
the New Jersey painted and repaired.

According to Green and others who follow the floating museum business,
the ships that do well have a brisk rental business for parties and
meetings, and they run programs that go beyond basic tours. Healthy
government subsidies don't hurt.

"They appear to be doing things right," said Channing Zucker, the former
executive director at the Virginia Beach, Va.-based Historic Naval Ships
Association.

Family Sleepovers on Board

In the past year, the staff at the museum has produced an educational
program that fits in with school curriculum requirements in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Like many retired ships, it offers overnight stays aboard the boat. But
unlike others that try to sell that program mostly to Scout troops, the
New Jersey also has a family sleepover program.

The museum section below the deck has been adding exhibits, including a
model-dominated one on the history of battleships and a demonstration of
Lockheed-Martin's Minesniper, essentially a remote-control surveillance
submarine.

There are plans to put in a naval plane simulator later this year.
And in a nod to the older customers who come by the busload in the summer,
the boat began hosting a USO-style revue last year.

The museum also has plans to offer self-guided tours for less than the $12.50
per adult, 1½-hour basic tour.

State Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina, R-Monmouth, began trying to get the New
Jersey to New Jersey since then-Gov. Brendan Byrne appointed him to chair a
state commission with that goal about a quarter-century ago. The ship, then
decommissioned, was called back to duty to serve in Beirut and the first Gulf
War.

When it was finally taken out of service for good, Azzolina and his commission
recommended the ship be docked in Bayonne.

Now, one reason for the ship's early struggles, Azzolina said, is that it
doesn't have the New York City-area population base  which it would have
had in Bayonne  to pull visitors from. Azzolina is still the chairman of the
Battleship New Jersey Foundation, which has made grants to the ship. He said
there's no gloating among that group about the ship's struggles down south.
"I don't allow it," he said. "The ship is here. It's in New Jersey. We got to
bring her home." If You Go...

BATTLESHIP NEW JERSEY: The battleship New Jersey is located on the Camden
Waterfront, across the Delaware River from Penn's Landing, Philadelphia.
HOURS: Through Feb. 29, Friday to Monday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; March 1-31,
daily, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; April-September, daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; October -
December, daily, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

ADMISSION: $12.50 for adults; $8 for seniors and veterans with valid ID; $8
for children ages 6 to 11; free for kids under 6. Active members of the
military in uniform and those who served on the Battleship New Jersey
admitted free of charge.

FIREPOWER TOUR: Two-hour tour highlighting the ship's weapons, given 10 a.m.,
noon, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. whenever the ship is open. Tour prices are $16 for
adults, $10 for children ages 6 to 11.

CONTACT: For more information, call (856) 966-1652 or visit
www.battleshipnewjersey.org.




--
BT
NNNN



Tracy Johnson
Justin Thyme Productions
http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/

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