New London and the brave men and women of the Coast Guard have been denied their Coast Guard museum for way too long.

Congress long ago said the Coast Guard should have its own museum, operated and staffed by the service and located in the city of New London, a place very important to Coast Guard history.

But the private nonprofit charged with carrying out this important mission has failed miserably, first choosing a grossly problematic site on a flood plain on the wrong side of the high-speed rail line in downtown New London and then spending millions on expenses over the years while raising nowhere near enough money to build a museum.

Alas, most Connecticut politicians, including our entire delegation to Washington, have allowed this sham to go on for more than seven years.

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My hope is that the New London City Council will stand up soon and do the right thing. It turns out the council has the legal authority to pull the rug out from this boondoggle, an impossible downtown museum.

The city wisely included a reverter clause in the deed when it granted the National Coast Guard Museum Association the property for its proposed waterfront museum site behind Union Station. The association was given 10 years to build something on that property, and seven of those 10 have elapsed with no hope of anything being built in the next three years.

It's time to make clear to the association there will be no extensions and it should start planning for another site in the city, preferably on the Fort Trumbull peninsula, the cradle of so much Coast Guard history.

If this organization can't do it, a new one should be created.

I think the best way to begin this transition would be to hear from the people of New London who have so far been excluded from the process.

How about it, city councilors? How about holding a public hearing and see what people really think about the idea of cramming a big glassy museum on the edge of the historic district of downtown New London, made accessible by a $20 million taxpayer-built pedestrian bridge leading to a parking garage already often filled to capacity.

I suspect you will hear loud and clear from your constituents the obvious: This plan, the grand aspiration of a now-deceased philanthropist, was always an impossible dream that is never going to happen.

But don't take my word for it. Invite the association to participate at the hearing and make its case for a deadline extension. Ask its members why they think more years added to the seven already lost is going to make any difference.

There's another good way to give the public a voice.

How about a referendum question in the next city election so that the people of New London, who were granted by Congress the privilege to host a Coast Guard museum, will have a vote on what should happen next.

Come on, councilors, get this going. More years of delay will just mean more millions of dollars wasted on expenses of a nonprofit that seems able only to preserve itself and its generous salaries instead of carrying out its mission.

Certainly, the lack of progress in fundraising is a sign that marketplace of potential donors has already spoken and given the crazy downtown site a big thumbs-down.

Let New London residents have the same input.

The museum association has never reached out to the community to hear what it thinks. The council has an obligation to begin this discussion.

We're all desperate for some real leadership here. Step in, councilors.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com