UPDATE FROM ARTICLE BELOW

Published - May, 21, 2006 

Pensacola Florida  "Maritime Museum gets big-name support"

Angela Fail
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

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Four men have been chosen to lead the fundraising efforts for the proposed Admiral Jack H. Fetterman State of Florida Maritime Museum and Research Center.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; David Hartman, former host of ABC's "Good Morning America"; and Tom Benson, owner of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, agreed to take the reins as co-chairmen of the fundraising effort, project officials announced Saturday.

The center is a key element in the proposed $70 million Community Maritime Park.

Jack Fetterman, a retired vice admiral, was a principal in developing the park proposal. He died in March.

The four were close friends of Fetterman.

"I proposed we ask dear friends and respected colleagues of Jack's," Fetterman's widow, Nancy, said in a news release. "I decided they must be men of national stature, with a connection to Pensacola, and that they must share Jack's dedication toward education and history."

The Florida Legislature recently designated the proposed $15 million museum as the official State of Florida Maritime Museum, giving it access to artifacts warehoused by the state. The legislature also named the museum in honor of Fetterman.

The four will work to carry on his legacy, Nancy Fetterman said.

"Each of these four men is amazingly influential and each believes in the value of education and the power of faith, family and friends," she said. "With these men in place, backing our efforts, who can be against us?"

The maritime park will be administered by and will serve as a research facility for the University of West Florida.

"We at UWF are very excited and honored that four nationally prominent people have agreed to serve as honorary chairs of our fundraising effort," John Cavanaugh, UWF president, said in the news release. "This team effort will ensure that the museum is a world-class facility and that it will mark a new level of excellence for both UWF and the community."

 

PUBLISHED SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2004  

'Daylight' starts to shine on plan for maritime museum

$20 million facility expected to boost tourism

Sheila Ingram
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

After three years of work, retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman is preparing to present his proposal for a $20 million maritime museum and research center to the Pensacola City Council.

Fetterman, 71, president and chief executive officer of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, also chairs a committee of about 55 community leaders. The latter group has come up with two possible locations for the 7.5- acre museum they expect to create a tourism and economic bonanza.

The two possible waterfront sites:

Construct the complex on a portion of the 40 acres that comprise the so-called Trillium site along Pensacola Bay and Bruce Beach nearby.

Renovate warehouses at the 50- acre Port of Pensacola.

Fetterman plans to formally present the two location proposals to the City Council next month. Until then, he's speaking to civic groups, community leaders - and anyone else he comes across.

"I'm more energized now, because I'm starting to see some daylight on the plans," he said.

Fetterman personally favors the Trillium location. He said a brand-new facility constructed from the ground up and designed without structural limitations is preferable to a renovated facility that possibly could interfere with anticipated cruise ship operations at the port.

But, he said, most important is that a dispute about the location not derail plans altogether.

"Once we get the site selection, then we can start revenue generation, and we'll also start to really design the innards of the research program," he said. "It will bring in hotels and visitors -- everybody is going to gain."

The proposed museum would increase visitor spending from about $25 million a year to $57 million a year, according to the University of West Florida Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development. It also would add 400 to 900 new jobs and raise between $1.2 million and $2.7 million a year in state and local taxes.

Fetterman wants the complex to be the official state maritime museum. He even has a name for it: The State of Florida Maritime Museum and Research Center.

"A state museum will bring so many people to Pensacola," he said. "I think it will have an intellectual and economic impact on Pensacola that we haven't had before."

Former state Rep. Jerry Maygarden, who chairs a citizens committee that is looking for alternative uses for the port and is on the maritime museum group's executive committee, also favors the Trillium land for the museum.

City Council members have hesitated to suggest a use for the site after voters rejected a council-endorsed $40 million waterfront park/auditorium in a referendum, and an immediate decision on the museum is not expected.

"The Trillium site is vacant land, and a maritime museum would be a public-use facility," Maygarden said. "It would remain in the public domain, and it's a natural fit for our heritage."

Others, however, favor the port location, saying a museum there would provide a way to turn the 50-acre port's future from industrial maritime use to mixed use to a commercial use with a cruise line terminal, hotels and shops.

"To me, the proper location is at the port," said retired Vice Adm. Tim Wright, associate director of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a research entity also located downtown.

"It will be an additional attraction for a cruise line that seems to be in the near offing. I think it is a great idea, and it has a natural spot in downtown Pensacola."

Some supporters say they don't care which site is selected for the museum, as long as it's built along the downtown waterfront.

Judy Bense, director of the University of West Florida Archaeology Institute and chairman of the Anthropology Department, is enthusiastic about the prospect of a local museum to promote further research into the hundreds of submerged shipwrecks in the Pensacola Bay area and to display artifacts collected by UWF scholars.

She said said the laboratories, aquariums, archives and launch operations for search vessels will be invaluable to archaeology, biology and history programs at the university.

"We have museums, but we don't have anything like this," she said. "Without the university's participation, this thing would not have the expertise, and it would not have the students. We see it as opportunities for research and for public outreach."

Where the museum is located doesn't matter, Bense said.

"I think it needs to be built between Joe Patti's and the bridge," she said.

Pensacola resident Eugene Franklin, a member of the museum study group's executive committee, also said he won't argue over the location.

"As long as there is deep water- access, I'll leave it up to the City Council to make that decision," he said. "I think the museum will be a major attraction that will complement the aviation museum, and the research center will give us the best of both worlds."

Fetterman is an experienced fund-raiser, so the task before him is not as daunting as it might be for others.

He worked to raise $8 million to expand the Naval Aviation Museum in 1996 and spearheaded a $36 million drive for a National Flight Academy more recently.

He was instrumental in Pensacola's designation last week as the resting place for the USS Oriskany, and his military influence helped bring about the USS John F. Kennedy's stopover at NAS Pensacola in March.

Fetterman said the proposed museum's educational opportunities and connection with the University of West Florida will help the museum obtain state and federal grants.

Research at the museum can affect Pensacola's environment as well.

The proposal calls for an environmental and marine research center with water quality and weather data collections.

Fetterman also said whether the wastewater treatment plant located on Main Street is moved to another location is of little consequence to the museum plans.

"This can really open up the west-side development," he said.

 

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