Posted on 05/09/2005 12:58:16 PM PDT by SmithL
ALAMEDA - A weekend media blitz produced enough donations to the USS Hornet Museum that Alameda Power & Telecom cut a deal to keep the ship open, at least in the short term.
The city-owned electric company notified the floating ship's management Thursday afternoon that if its $26,000 bill wasn't paid, the electricity would be cut off at noon today, said Hornet chief executive officer Scott Armanini.
The Hornet was able to pay $6,000 today and promised another $3,300 by May 16, he said. They will pay the remainder, except for a $10,000 line of credit with the utility, on May 18.
"There's been an outpouring of public sympathy and donations are coming in," Armanini said.
"This is just a solution to the immediate problem; we still need more donations and sponsorships," he said.
The museum would have been out of business if it had lost electricity, Armanini said Friday.
"We can't arbitrarily subsidize one customer at the expense of all others," said AP&T spokesman Matt McCabe, in a prepared statement before the last-minute arrangements for payment.
"My understanding is that we have been working with the USS Hornet Museum for quite a period of time (and) they had made payment arrangements," McCabe said.
The Hornet's electric bill stood at $17,000 on May 2, when a new bill arrived, raising the total to $26,000, Armanini said.
"Our previous payment arrangement had been to keep bills under $10,000 and numerous times we did that," he said. "We had a brutal winter and not many visitors come in winter, but they do come in the summer."
The power problem is just the tip of the iceberg for the historic ship, which served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam and later went on to recover three Apollo mission capsules.
The Hornet hasn't paid rent to the city for two years and owes $500,000.
Further complicating the situation is that the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Fleet, the Hornet's neighbor at Alameda Point, told the city it can't maintain security at post-9/11 levels with tourists wandering nearby. The only way to keep both the fleet and the Hornet in Alameda is for the city to remodel Pier 1 at a cost of $1 million and move the Hornet there.
The City Council will consider its options in a couple of weeks, said Development Director Leslie Little.
"I don't think we have a choice," said Vice Mayor Marie Gilmore. "We are asking city departments to tighten their belts. It might be different if we were in boom times."
"My hope is we can keep the Hornet in Alameda," said Councilman Frank Matarrese. "If it becomes a financial drain on the city, it may be a luxury we cannot afford."
Acting City Manager Bill Norton met with Hornet officials extensively, Gilmore said.
"You want to help them but have to feel they have a real plan for getting out of trouble," she said. She doesn't think they have a viable plan.
Before opening in August 1998, the Hornet projected 350,000 to 1 million annual visitors. The actual figure is closer to 100,000.
To bring in enough revenue for its rent, the Hornet has changed its mission from a tourist attraction to an event center.
"We have made incredible progress," said Armanini, who took over the Hornet five months ago. Events such as the July 4 celebration bring up to $15,000 and events like last year's sports car concourse raise $50,000 to $100,000, he said.
Still the rent bill increases, having doubled in the past 19 months.
Council members "feel like we've given them all the time we can," Gilmore said.
Something tells me you never served aboard as US Navy ship!
Hornet ping
"Scrap that old hulk. Honor the Sailors not their tools."
Honor the Sailors? You mean the guys who served on the Hornet, right? Your comment Honors nothing.
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~drmiles/crew_stories.html
No, that person has never served. At least not anyone but themselves, and certainly not in the military.
But you could donate electricity to a worthy cause. However, the chances are that Matt McCabe is an anti-war Berzerkly nut.
"Something tells me you never served aboard as US Navy ship!"
I served on 2, and he makes a good point.
Which ships were you on?
If only the citizens of the respective states held the actually important things affecting this nation of states in such a high regard, instead of old pieces of machinery, one would think there perhaps could be some hope for returning to a constitutional republic. Or is that somehow not important when our pet projects may come under the proverbial ax?
If it weren't for that ship my family & I woulda never met the vets of the great naval battles of WWII that we have.
Its one of the last physical links in the Bay Area to WWII. And to the US Navy, for that matter. It'd be a SHAME to lose her.
Let me join the growing list who've jumped you for your post. It's obvious that not only have you never served, you've never toured a museum ship.
I've not been to the Hornet, but I have toured her sister ship, the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi (and you can stand in the same room off the bridge where Marc Mitscher ordered the lights turned on to guide the exhausted pilots home when their planes were on fumes at the Battle of the Phillipine Sea.) We go to Carolina Beach, NC, every summer (because the USS North Carolina in the Cape Fear River. Stand in her hot engine room in midsummer and think of the guys buttoned up there in the South Pacific with the boilers runnning full blast, knowing that if the ship takes a fatal hit, you're going down with her). I've been on the USS Olympia in Philadelphia; Dewey's flaghship at Manila Bay. They have a set of footprints embossed on the bridge where the admiral stood as he gave one of the most famous commands in the history of the United States Navy: "You may fire when ready, Gridley." I've been to the U505 at Chicago's Museum of Science and industry. Even if they fought against us, you have to admire the courage of the German sailors who went to sea in their "Iron Coffins," knowing full well they had long odds of returning. And they were all volunteers.
Nope, from my humble perspective, you have no idea what you are talking about.
"Which ships were you on?"
USS Chicago CG-11
USS Sampson DDG-10
You didn't have to tell you never served on a ship I can tell by the rest of your post, if you had of served you would know the pride the sailors have for the ship they served on. You have a right to complain all you want about waste but until you served on one you have no idea the feelings one has for the ship they served on.
I sailed on the USS Dennis J Buckley DD808 in 1971-72, I think we may have worked with the Chicago at one time if my memory serves me correct.
I was on Chicago from 77 to 79, sailed on her last WestPac. She was decommissioned and I moved to the Sampson.
Chicago was a flagship for... dang, I forget, 6th fleet? Anyway, it wasn't bad duty. They made razorblades out of it.
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