BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Paul Marzello, The President and CEO of Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park says a ship architect and his crew are in town right now collecting data on USS The Sullivans and working on a plan to make sure the ship is around for years to come.
"She is righted, she is stable and right now we are trying to kind of craft out the next steps. He's going to evaluate the haul of all 3 ships, determine if there's any more product or waste that needs to be taken out of the hulls and then thirdly is to help craft a plan as to what we are going to do with them next," Marzello explains.
Emergency efforts were taken when the USS The Sullivans began sinking in April. Workers plugged dozens of holes in the two weeks that followed. By July, $7.5 million in federal funding had been secured to save and maintain the ship.
Marzello says they have looked at a number of options including "cofferdams, dry docking, fixing her in place or some creative solution that may be a combination of all of those. Marzello says, "He's got the important job of figuring out what those plans might cost, what the duration might be...if it is going to be dry docked, she might have to be towed to Erie Pennsylvania for 3 or 4 months and then brought back so it's going to be a tough job."
Paul says he's certain they have the right man for the job. An architect who was in Buffalo decades ago helping to move the ships, "When the ships were moved from the skyway. They were underneath the skyway and brought up here because they were going to develop Canalside, right? This was the year 2000. He was the architect that the NYS authorities hired to do that," he recalls.
Paul says they will know more about the plan within the next 3 months. He says they expect to be back open for tours in April when visitors will once again be allowed below deck, but he says it will be a "controlled path."
