USS Intrepid faces new peril — money

[unhappycamper]

USS Intrepid faces new peril — money
By Richard Pyle - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 25, 2008 13:49:50 EDT

NEW YORK — Once it was Japanese torpedoes and kamikaze suicide planes. Then, the threat of the wrecking ball. Now, it’s money — or the lack of it — that could imperil the future of the veteran aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

Nineteen months after tugboats pried it from the mud at its Hudson River pier and towed it away for a much-needed renovation, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier needs a sizable infusion of cash to resume its postwar career as a floating military museum.

If all goes according to plan, the ship will be brought back in early October and formally reopened to the public on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

That depends on finding the wherewithal to complete a job that was first estimated at $65 million to $70 million and is now expected to cost $110 million, said Bill White, president of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Of that total, $66 million is for rebuilding its city-owned pier, and the rest for the museum ship.

In a move he said he never expected would be necessary, White has put the Intrepid’s $15 million endowment up as collateral to cover expenses. That money would be repaid, he said. He also asked the federal government to pony up more money for costs of returning the ship, including $9 million to $12 million for dredging a trench for it to rest in.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_intrepid_052408/