LITTLE ROCK — Hank Williams Jr. fans taking in his concert Saturday at Verizon Arena will contribute to the state’s veterans and also help North Little Rock in its effort to bring the U.S.S. Hoga tugboat to Arkansas.
The concert’s tie-in with the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum is the first of two “major” fundraisers in October to help North Little Rock cover the estimated $750,000-$800,000 cost to transport the Pearl Harbor surviving Hoga from California by barge.
The other event planned is a dinner Oct. 16 at the maritime museum, which includes barges used to hold events.
Profits from ticket sales to Saturday’s Williams concert, billed as an “American Freedom Festival,” will go to the American Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit based in Tampa, Fla. The organization is described on its website as a public benefit corporation organized to honor and raise money for U.S. veterans groups.
The foundation’s Arkansas branch will then dole out those proceeds as contributions to veterans in need and to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum.The group’s website, americanfreedomfoundation.org, lists groups it will support, including the museum, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States and “other Arkansas statewide military charitable organizations.”
“Everything we raise will be used for these groups after the show’s expenses are paid,” Steve Finnegan, chairman of Arkansas Freedom Festival Arkansas, said at a brief news conference Wednesday to promote the event. “This is our inaugural event [in Arkansas]. People will get used to us being around.”
No estimate is available of how much profit the concert will generate, Finnegan said, nor how much each benefactor would receive. About 8,500 tickets are projected to be sold, Jana DeGeorge, the arena’s marketing director, said Wednesday. Tickets range from $27 to $131.50.
“AIMM approached us and the city of North Little Rock has been very strong in its honoring of veterans,” said Finnegan, whose Finnegan and Company is used by the city to solicit grants. “The Naval Department and Mayor [Patrick] Hays are very determined to bring the Hoga to North Little Rock.”
How much the museum receives “will depend on Saturday night’s proceeds by the concert,” he added.
The Hoga survived Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, and is designated a National Historic Landmark for its role in saving lives and fighting fires after the attack.
In 2005, North Little Rock beat out four other applicants to obtain title to the tug from the U.S. Navy with plans to place it alongside the U.S.S. Razorback submarine at the museum east of the Main Street Bridge. The city owns all assets of the museum.
The Hoga is stored as part of the Navy’s Inactive Ships Program in Suisun Bay at San Francisco. North Little Rock spends about $1,500 annually to maintain the boat, though there is no charge by the Navy to store the boat, said Greg Zonner, the museum’s executive director.
However, the city-funded museum spent $5,937 early this year on deck repairs for the Hoga, according to three invoices that Zonner supplied to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Wednesday.
Getting the Hoga to North Little Rock has been an ongoing problem since obtaining title. The fundraisers are part of a plan to have a transport plan in place by July, Hays said.
“To be honest, we really haven’t mounted a strong effort to try to raise more dollars,” Hays said, blaming the recession and fundraising challenges. “We’re going to make a real concentrated effort between now and next summer. If we’re not there by next summer, we’ll have to make some hard decisions.”
Capt. Chris Pietras, who took over the Navy Inactive Ships Program this year, traveled to North Little Rock this summer to meet with Hays and Zonner about the city’s level of interest in the Hoga and its fundraising capabilities.
Copies of e-mails obtained from Hays’ office and Zonner under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act showed the Navy had inquired almost a year ago about whether the museum could meet the terms of its 2002 application to obtain the Hoga.
“Does AIMM also have funds available for these expenses?” part of an Oct. 22, 2009, e-mail from the Navy asked.
The application listed capital improvement costs to create the museum site and boat berths at $555,800 with financial resources of $1.4 million. The capital costs have been spent in creating the museum space, Zonner said Wednesday.
But that anticipated $1.4 million isn’t in place, according to Hays and Zonner. A $400,000 donation from Stephens Inc. was used to transport the Razorback submarine from Turkey, Hays said, while a $1 million contribution Zonner said was pledged by the Arkansas Veterans’ Coalition “never came through,” he said.
The museum has less than $200,000 remaining from a North Little Rock City Council appropriation of $395,000 approved in October 2007, Zonner said. The 2007 appropriation was intended for a failed attempt to transport the Hoga late that year. Much of the money was spent on the riggings for transport that would still be good, he added.
This year’s city budget increased the city’s annual appropriation to the museum operations from $100,000 to $200,000.
Between 2006-2008, according to a review in August 2008 by the Democrat-Gazette of city funding to the museum, North Little Rock spent $331,528 on the Hoga and its ongoing transport preparation. The city had put $2.8 million into the museum complex by that time, including expansion to provide docking space for the privately owned Arkansas Queen riverboat.
Other cities would be interested in preserving the Hoga if North Little Rock can’t, Hays said.
“We kind of agreed that it is unfair to keep something on hold particularly if someone else is interested and would have the financial ability to take it,” Hays recalled of the meeting with Pietras. “Nobody came and said on July 1 we want theboat back, It was more, what are y’all’s interests and how do you plan to get there?”
Because of the boat’s fragile condition, the Navy requires it to be lifted onto a “cradle” and transported by barge to New Orleans. After an estimated $60,000 in repairs there, according to Zonner, the tug could be towed up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers.
Tickets to the Oct. 16 fundraiser dinner at the museum will cost $75 with $5 from each ticket going toward the city’s planned Veterans Memorial at the Laman Library Plaza, said Elizabeth Elizandro of the North Little Rock Visitors Bureau. The remainder of the net proceeds will go to the museum, she added.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 09/30/2010