Courtney Looks To Get Coast Guard Museum Project Up and Running

The Day By: Jennifer Grogan

October 15, 2009

New London - U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney wants to get the stalled National Coast Guard Museum project going again by creating a public-private partnership to support the endeavor.

Courtney, D-2nd District, discussed the project with Adm. Thad W. Allen, Coast Guard commandant, late last month and requested a letter reaffirming the service's support for the museum.

Allen did not say in that letter whether he supports such a partnership, but other stakeholders, including Coast Guard Foundation President Anne Brengle, are in favor of the idea.

Brengle said there is “no way this can be just a project built on private philanthropy; it has got to be a public-private partnership.”

Allen called New London the “natural home” for the museum in the letter, dated Oct. 5, since the city has historical ties to the Coast Guard, has a place in national maritime history and is home to the Coast Guard Academy.

Courtney wants to amend the 2004 law that established New London as the home to the National Coast Guard Museum to allow the Coast Guard to help pay for the museum.

The law states that no appropriated funds will be spent for the engineering, design or construction of the museum, and only limited funding will be available for operating the museum once it is built.

Plans for the $65 million project were put on hold in July, with the National Coast Guard Museum Association and the Coast Guard Foundation citing lackluster fundraising and a stagnant economy as the reasons.

”People recognize this will be a privately-funded entity but it still needs some Coast Guard support, just like the other military services support their museums,” Courtney said. “So we want to find a way to send the signal that the Coast Guard is directly involved in this effort.”

Allen's press secretary, Lt. Cmdr. Tony Russell, said Wednesday that it would inappropriate to comment on any potential legislative changes but that “we remain committed to working with Congressman Courtney and our many other supporters to develop a world-class facility that will make New London, the Coast Guard and the nation proud.”

The Coast Guard is currently reviewing the strategic master plan for the project, and Courtney wants to propose changing the law after that review is complete, sometime this winter.

The Coast Guard is the only branch of the military that does not have a national museum to recount its history, service and missions. A small museum at the Coast Guard Academy displays some artifacts but space limitations prevent larger exhibits.

In late 2008, the Coast Guard Foundation announced plans for a roughly 60,000-square-foot museum on a parcel of land in Fort Trumbull off Nameaug Street Extension. A portion of that site was originally slated to be the site of a hotel and conference center when the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project began 10 years ago.

The museum had originally been proposed on a different part of the Fort Trumbull peninsula that was not on the waterfront.

John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp., said the museum is important to the development of Fort Trumbull, as a “major attraction” that will “complement the other outstanding maritime attractions in our area.”

”We are looking forward to the economic recovery that will allow resumption of the fundraising efforts for the museum,” he said in a statement.

Day staff writer Kathleen Edgecomb contributed to this report.