Razorback Rides too low and forces delay in its arrival as of 15 July 2004

Since 07-18-04

From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com] Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 10:16 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Razorback Rides too low, forces delay in its arrival

Razorback Rides too low, forces delay in its arrival

Sub will still arrive sometime this summer; city will still throw party, mayor says.

http://www.nlrtimes.com/


North Little Rock Times Thursday, July 15, 2004

By Eric Francis

The Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum experienced a double whammy this week as an uncooperative ballast tank and falling river levels conspired to delay the arrival of the U.S.S. Razorback submarine - maybe for days, maybe for weeks - and a rival organization in Florida filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the U.S. Navy's decision to donate the Pearl Harbor tugboat U.S.S. Hoga to North Little Rock.

The original plan had called for the Razorback to arrive this Sunday, an event to be marked with entertainment, bands and a fireworks display.

"This summer," said Mayor Pat Hays about when he expected the submarine to complete its journey. "She could be coming up river next week [or] it could be August."

Hays, speaking from his cell phone while driving to Rosedale, Miss., where the submarine will dock until the problems can be resolved, said that the Razorback will still make her scheduled appearance tomorrow morning at the dedication of the new Montgomery Point Lock & Dam on the White River outside Tichnor, Ark.

In fact, the stopover at Rosedale means a chance to spruce up the old girl a little for the occasion.

"We're going to get a crew to go over and put some lipstick on her, which in nautical terms means a little rust cover," Hays said. "So she'll have a nice outfit on for Montgomery Point."

But there are also plans in the works to address the problems that are keeping the tugboat Rhea and the sub from, as Hays puts it, hanging a left and heading on up the Arkansas River.

"There's a former Razorback engineer who's said he will come down if we buy him a plane ticket and try to sort it out," said the mayor.

And the city will take up Shane Foraker on that offer, he said, putting him up in a hotel for a week while he tries to sort out the problem with the ballast tank, at no additional charge for his expertise.

In addition, a Navy admiral the city has been in contact with has offered to assign a submarine weight and ballast specialist to work with them, and a "network of former sub captains" who have been following the sub's progress have also offered to collaborate on different approaches that might be taken to get the sub up the Arkansas.

However, Hays acknowledged that barges may ultimately come into the picture, as were used in 1972 to tote the U.S.S. Batfish to Muskogee, Okla., up the very same river.

All of these delays and problems have driven up the cost to bring the Razorback to North Little Rock.

"If you're ever asked what it will cost to bring a submarine from Turkey to Arkansas, double it, just double it," Hays said guessing the amount.

"Even with that," he added, "I'm told we saved a whole lot by some of the ways we've done it," such as removing the heavy batteries and the propellers.

As for what's been spent so far, Hays estimated the total was between $550,000 and $600,000.

"Right now we're up to date on the bills that were presented to us," he said. "We've got some outstanding bills and that's why we went to the City Council [Monday] night."

At that meeting, Hays requested permission to tap into $200,000 fund that had been for unspecified riverfront improvements. The seven aldermen present approved the request unanimously and without comment.

Hays said spending that money on the sub isn't too far from his original plans for it.

"My intent was to spend it on the [city's] barges, so it was in the project anyway and we still have to spend some money on the barges," he said. "We very well likely need to look to adding to that [fund] at some point." It's not just the City Council and the fundraising efforts for the Razorback that are feeling a financial pinch from the delay. Party plans had already been underway and money spent in preparation for Sunday's festivities.

"Because of the delay in the sub's arrival, we're probably going to have to spend more than $20,000 we budgeted" on activities related to the U.S.S. Razorback, Advertising and Promotion director Karen Trevino told the A&P Commission at their meeting last Monday.

Among the added expenses, the commission will need to reprint 5,000 invitations, and the T-shirts commemorating the event will have to have the new date printed over the original one.

Still, driving toward Mississippi on Tuesday afternoon, Hays displayed his characteristic optimism in the face of delays and cost overruns.

"When we started that project, that submarine was 30 hours away by air [travel]," he said. "Now it's three hours away by car. We're almost home."

Tug rival files lawsuit

On Tuesday, city officials learned that the Hollywood, Fla., nonprofit that had been among the contenders for the U.S.S. Hoga had filed suit in federal court to try to have the Navy's decision to award North Little Rock the tugboat set aside.

"At this point, there's no order stopping us from going forward," noted Mayor Pat Hays. "I'm not sure, this is fresh news. I was told the [U.S.] Attorney General was served and the Navy just now found out about it."

According to the web site for the U.S.S. Hoga YT-146 Association Inc., the suit was actually filed on June 16 by Gina Silvestri, one of the organizers of the Florida effort, and named the Secretary of the Navy as the defendant.

Lawyer Joe Ganguzza, of the Miami form of Hyman, Caplan, Ganguzza, Spector and Mars, said in a phone interview Tuesday that his company had recently been retained to represent to association in the suit.

"They feel the action taken by the Navy was arbitrary and capricious," Ganguzza explained. "The association had a well developed plan for a World War II memorial here in Hollywood, and a particular interest in the Hoga. They were very surprised when the ship ended up with an indication that it would be donated to your museum in Arkansas."

He also said the city of Hollywood, located on the Atlantic coast about 20 miles north of Miami, was "prepared to give them a very beautiful site on city land on the Intercoastal Waterway." The association, like the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, does not currently have a museum facility. Ganguzza said that the AIMM will be added as a party to the lawsuit once he has revised the complaint.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. No hearings have been set as yet, and any that are will likely be held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Ganguzza said.

-Eric Francis

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