02-01-10 Regular Meeting of the La Porte Development Corporation Board of Directors minutes

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After many years of evaluating a wide range of alternative plans to address the ship's problems (as well as other issues at San Jacinto), TPWD, working with many of the stakeholders at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park, adopted a "Master Plan" that called for placing the Texas into a permanent dry berth. It must be emphasized at this point that all parties that are partners with TPWD at San Jacinto, including the San Jacinto Historical Advisory Board, the San Jacinto Museum of History, BTF, the San Jacinto Battleground Association (aka The Friends of the San Jacinto Battleground), Daughters ofthe Republic of Texas, Sons of the Republic of Texas, and others, had input into the "Master Plan". After the "Master Plan" was formally adopted by TPWD in 2004, the Legislature was approached to secure appropriate funding. The Legislature allowed the voters of Texas to express their opinion and, in November 2007, the voters approved Proposition 4 which authorized the issuance of $25 million in bonds to fund the cost of placing the Texas into a permanent dry berth. One of the provisions of the bond legislation is that BTF raise $4 million in private funds to supplement the $25 million in bond funds. This will provide a total of $29 million to accomplish the goal. With this vote-of-confidence in place, BTF contracted with an independent maritime engineering firm to make a survey of the ship to determine her condition. After all, if the ship is not structurally sound enough to support herself when permanently resting on keel blocks, then the question of dry berthing would be moot. Fortunately, the report reflects that, although her hull leaks, her keel and main supporting internal structure is sufficiently strong to support the weight of the ship in a dry berth. Throughout the evaluation process, BTF has worked cooperatively with TPWD to ensure that the overall plan for preserving, restoring and presenting the ship meets TPWD's goals. Once it was determined that dry-berthing was physically possible for the ship, it was necessary to make a preliminary evaluation of the engineering-viable ways in which dry-berthing could actually be accomplished. Again, an independent maritime engineering firm was contracted to study the full range of dry-berth alternatives and to present a report of their findings to BTF and to TPWD. TPWD, acting on the report of the ship's condition, and on the report of the engineering-viable dry-berth alternatives, and on their internal studies and reports, prepared a progress report which they presented to the LBB in July 2008. The LBB agreed that the required progress, in accordance with Rider 33 to Proposition 4, has been made. On March 16,2009 the LBB acted to authorize the sale of the Bonds, specifically stating that the Bonds are "contingent on the ship being dry berthed in its current location." So the financial choice is stark - spend at least $15 million every 15 to 20 years to patch the ship (and never be sure it's "enough") or spend a maximum of $29 million, just once, to permanently solve the problem. 7