Bay City May Get Destroyer Edson as Big Apple Clears Space for Concorde
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USS Edson (DD-946) at its New York City berth at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on the Hudson River
Supersonic Jet Concorde of British Airways is roped and tied down by Intrepid Museum officials in New York.
A New York City project to put the French supersonic airliner Concorde on display may give Bay City its long-awaited chance to obtain a naval ship as a tourist attraction and memorialize Bay City's long history of shipbuilding.
The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum was forced to move out a destroyer, one of several ships displayed, to make room for the Concorde, which arrived in New York on Nov. 25.
The destroyer USS Edson (DD-946), a New York attraction since 1989, may be headed for a new berth in Bay City, possibly as a centerpiece of the planned Uptown at RiversEdge redevelopment project.
It would become only the second ship museum in Michigan, the first being a submarine on display in Muskegon.
Officers of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum Committee, Richard Janke,treasurer, and Michael Kegley, president, have kicked off fundraising for the project, aiming for $350,000 to $450,000 to add to $139,000 on hand.
The revised project drops plans to bring a similar ship, the USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2) at a cost estimated at several million, and substitutes the Edson, a fully-outfitted museum ship.
The New York museum has returned the Edson to the U.S. Navy at Philadelphia, where it awaits either a new home or scrapping.
U.S. Senator Carl Levin, D-Michigan, has been asked to help obtain the Edson from the Navy at no cost.
Local museum planners already have permits for environmental cleanup of the old Davidson Shipyard drydock in Veterans Memorial Park on the West Side, the site picked for display of the Adams. And the city is applying for a so-called T-21 (Ice Tea) grant to pay for the Davidson slip cleanup.
However, the plan to raise an estimated several million dollars to obtain and rehabilitate the Adams and tow it to Bay City has changed with the availability of the Edson, at a fraction of the cost, Janke and Kegley indicated.
"The city has told us if the Edson arrives before the Davidson slip is ready, we could park it near the gazebo at the foot of the old Sears Parking lot," said Janke. That plan would switch the ship display from the west side to the east side of the river and in effect make it part of the Uptown project, which consultants have suggested should have a maritime theme.
Funds are needed to hire ocean-going tugs to tow the Edson from Philadelphia to Quebec and through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes and to Bay City, the museum planners indicated.
According to Janke and Kegley, meetings are scheduled with the state budget director and State Sen. James Barcia, D-Bay City, the Michigan Economic Development Commission (MEDC) and local economic developers, to help raise the monies necessary to bring the Edson here.
Planners estimate the Edson display would attract more than 100,000 visitors annually and create revenues of about $797,000 the first year. Costs, including personnel, maintenance and advertising, are estimated at $491,000 a year.
A submarine display in Muskegon, the USS Silversides, is expected to attract 70,000 persons this year, the planners said.
Dozens of local school districts in the area have indicated interest in incorporating educational programs involving a ship display into their curricula, said Janke. An educational program for the ship museum was developed by former Bay City school superintendent Raymond Keech in cooperation with Saginaw Valley State University.
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