PORTLAND — Advocates of a plan to bring the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier to Portland will be back before the City Council this week, looking for support despite a lack of enthusiasm for the project in the past.

The proponents are insisting that they won’t be looking for the city’s financial support at the meeting Wednesday, just a blessing to put the carrier on the eastern end of the waterfront and continue competing with Newport, R.I., and the scrap yard for the ship.

“It’s a one-shot deal, either take it or leave it – there won’t be another one,” said F. Lee Bailey, the renowned lawyer who now lives in Maine and has become a supporter of the effort to bring the carrier here and turn it into a museum and possibly a convention center.

Bailey noted that the JFK is the last of the Navy’s conventionally powered carriers. If Portland doesn’t get on board to try to bring the decommissioned ship here, it won’t have another opportunity with a carrier, given the Navy’s policy against allowing nuclear-powered craft to be put to civilian use.

The museum’s proponents want to see the aircraft carrier positioned just beyond the Ocean Gateway cruise ship terminal on the eastern end of the Portland waterfront. They want the council to express its support for that location before the Feb. 2 deadline for Phase II of the Navy’s process for determining what will happen to the JFK.

If the Portland group is successful, the project could advance to Phase III, in which the local advocates will need to show financial backing for the cost of moving the ship here, berthing it – which could require dredging – and paying for renovations.

A detailed financial plan for operating the ship as a museum would be required, and more concrete municipal support probably would be expected before that phase wraps up in late summer or early fall.

After that, a variety of state and local permits – including environmental reviews – would be required.

Steve Woods, the chief executive officer and executive director of the USS John F. Kennedy Museum, said the city will not be asked for any financial help and the group will raise all the money it needs privately.

Newport, R.I., is also in the running for the aircraft carrier, and that community’s effort has attracted the support of some members of the Kennedy family. The Navy could also reject both proposals and scrap the ship instead.

“The commitment to the city will be no dollars out of your pocket and hopefully some dollars in your pocket,” Bailey said, arguing that the aircraft carrier could become a tourist draw and possibly attract more cruise ships to the city.

The council initially supported the effort a year ago, although not very enthusiastically. During an update on the project in September, four of nine councilors spoke against the plan and none spoke in favor.

“The last message we gave the group was that we weren’t interested. I thought we were clear then,” said Councilor Dory Waxman, who spoke against the plan. “There’s been a public outcry, as I see it, saying, ‘No, this is not what Portland is.’ I won’t support the Kennedy coming here.”

Mayor Nicholas Mavadones, who also spoke against the proposal in September, said he agreed to let backers make a pitch at Wednesday’s meeting but told Woods to keep it to 10 minutes or less.

“I’m willing to keep an open mind,” Mavadones said, but he noted the council’s prior lack of enthusiasm.

Bailey said one message of the supporters will be for the council to allow them to move forward, with the council reserving the right to pull its backing down the road.

Bailey, who said he’s “a naval aviator” at heart, said the JFK could be like “an anchor tenant” in a mall, drawing visitors who would then explore other parts of Portland and Casco Bay.

He also likened the attempt to get the aircraft carrier here to President Kennedy’s challenge for the country to put astronauts on the moon at a time when the American space program was in its infancy.

Like that effort, “it’s not supposed to be easy,” Bailey said of trying to bring the carrier to Maine. “It’s supposed to be hard and it is.”

 

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com

 

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