Last week, there was a major
maritime heritage conference held in Norfolk at the NAUTICUS museum. http://nauticus.org/maritime/program.html
After reviewing the program,
there were several topics that related to issues involving STORIS and ACUSHNET.
Among the speakers were retired CG Commandant Robert Papp.
The most relevant program was
a presentation Saturday related to the benefits of listing on the National
Register of Historic Places. Jim Loback and I nominated STORIS for listing in
the summer of 2012 and she was listed officially as nationally significant on Dec. 31, 2012. A year later, she was being cut apart on the beach
in Ensenada by Mexican yardbirds.
I quickly wrote up an
outline of the situation with a cover letter and sent the materials by email to
Erika Seibert (erika_seibert@nps.gov),
the representative from the National Park Service who was giving the
presentation. I copied Paul Lusignan, the NPS official who had been involved
with STORIS’ National Register nomination. I also sent the document to some
other key people I knew were going to the event.
The cover letter is here: http://goo.gl/4Sltn6
The document is here: http://goo.gl/PKmKa2
After it was sent, it came
to my attention that I had made a small error in the acronym for the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for which I erroneously inserted “Protection”
for “Policy.” That has been corrected in the document posted here. I have also
updated my position as it related to Section 110 of the National Historic
Preservation Act to further clarify the situation with the federal government’s
responsibilities to preserve and protect STORIS and ACUSHNET.
I have heard back that the
document ended up in print form and was made available to several people, who
picked up copies at the conference. I hope that it will do some good, as I was
told that those people who picked up the document seemed to be thoughtfully
reviewing it.
STORIS should have been
celebrated at this event, not mourned.
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