Tugboat fundraiser a failure, NLR says

Concert leaves no funds to move vessel

The US Navy tugboat USS Hoga (foreground, right)is the last operational vessel that survived Japan's WWII attack on the navy base at Pearl Harbor.
The US Navy tugboat USS Hoga (foreground, right)is the last operational vessel that survived Japan's WWII attack on the navy base at Pearl Harbor.

— An October concert promoted as a fundraiser for transporting a Pearl Harbor surviving tugboat to North Little Rock and to aid the state’s veterans provided “zero funds” to those causes, Mayor Patrick Hays said.

Net proceeds from ticket sales were to provide a kickoff toward the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum raising an estimated $800,000 by this summer, a goal Hays says is still in place.

The money is needed to relocate the Hoga tugboat from Northern California to be placed alongside the USS Razorback submarine at the North Little Rock museum on the Arkansas River east of the Main Street Bridge. The city owns all assets of the museum.

The “American Freedom Festival” concert at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Oct. 2, with headliner Hank Williams Jr. and four opening acts, drew 8,481 fans with gross sales from tickets of $391,949, according to arena figures.

“There were zero funds left over,” Hays said late last week. He added that some“bigger sponsors hoped for ” didn’t materialize.

“What I was told was there were no funds for distribution,” Hays said. “The concert might have even gone in the hole a little bit. Unfortunately, that didn’t prove to be an opportunity for us.”

The Hoga, used as a fireboat in World War II, survived Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and is designated as a National Historic Landmark for its role in saving lives and fighting fires after the attack. The city obtained title to the boat from the Navy in 2005, after a competition with four other groups.

A naval official met with Hays last summer to inquire about the city’s continued interest in the Hoga and its ability to raise money to move and maintain the historic tug.

Hays said at that time that he had set a goal of mid-2011 to have a financial plan in place to remove the Hoga from the Navy’s Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet.

A spokesman in the Naval Sea Systems Command communications office said in an e-mail Friday that the Navy “is not prepared to make a comment” based on the news that the city’s fundraising has been ineffective.

“I put the blame on me and other priorities having taken precedent,” Hays said.

Hays has said that if sufficient funds can’t be raised, he would be faced with “hard decisions” on his plan, worked on for nine years, to give the Hoga a home in North Little Rock.

“I don’t know if I’m worried yet or not,” Hays replied to a question. “Give me an opportunity to make a strong effort, and if we’re not successful then I could become concerned.”

An advisory committee will be formed soon, Hays said, to promote the effort and oversee fundraising for the Hoga’s transport.

“We’ll put together a group and really get going,” Hays said.

A fundraiser dinner at the museum planned for last fall was postponed because of scheduling conflicts and was to be held this spring. The dinner hasn’t yet been rescheduled, Karen Trevino, the city’s Advertising and Promotion executive director, said Friday.

Fundraising efforts for the maritime museum and the Hoga won’t start until the advisory committee is formed, she added. However, there are plans for a fundraiser on the riverfront in May or June, Trevino said. Details haven’t been finalized, she added.

Hays said he learned about the concert’s net loss “a month or so” ago after an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter asked whether the city had received any funds yet. He didn’t discuss the failed fundraiser until asked about it again last week.

However, Greg Zonner, the museum’s executive director, had said earlier in the week that he was still expecting to hear from the concert’s promoter about the museum’s share in revenue.

“We didn’t expect it to be real big, but I think we expected to get several thousands dollars out of it,” Zonner said. “I don’t know whether we will or not. They put that concert together real quick. I haven’t heard anything about it.”

Proceeds from the concert’s ticket sales were to go to the nonprofit American Freedom Foundation based in Tampa, Fla., according to a brochure advertising the October concert. The foundation’s Arkansas office was then to distribute those profits to various veterans organizations in the state, including the maritime museum.

Chairman of the group’s Arkansas affiliate is Stephen Finnegan, whose Finnegan & Co. Inc. has a $30,000 annual grant-writing contract with North Little Rock. The contract is scheduled for possible renewal by the City Council next month.

Finnegan didn’t return messages asking for comment.

The Navy has expected North Little Rock to remove the Hoga from its custody at Suisun Bay since the city completed a tow plan for Navy approval Feb. 5, 2009, according to an October 2010 e-mail from the Naval Sea Systems Command.

The museum has a “pay as you go” vessel-maintenance contract, Zonner said, with Marine Survey and Management Co. of Petaluma, Calif., for any needed maintenance and repairs of the Hoga.

The Navy is requiring North Little Rock to have the Hoga - which is in fragile condition - lifted onto a “cradle” and transported by barge to New Orleans, a more expensive venture than being towed.

At New Orleans, the tugboat would need about $60,000 in repairs, Zonner has previously estimated, to secure its ability to be towed up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/21/2011

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