The saga of the National Coast Guard Museum continues. Around 2004 the Coast Guard determined that the museum would be sited at Fort Trumbull. That plan came apart for reasons never clearly explained, and a new siting committee determined that the museum should be located in a mud pit behind Union Station on a parcel donated by the city of New London. Access will be via a $20 million walking bridge contraption with potential failure points. Will it meet ADA accessibility requirements? Also, parking and congestion will be challenging at best. 

Fast forward to 2020 and we see a project on life support, languishing from a lack of interest, lack of community support, and lack of funding, among other things.

David Collins wrote in a column ("Let's be honest, the downtown Coast Guard museum is dead," Oct. 4), that the museum will never be built. Sadly, that is probably the case. 

The National Coast Guard Museum Association has only itself to blame. They concocted a flawed plan with an atrocious design and decided to stick with it in spite of overwhelming evidence that it was a bad idea. Their contrary positions have seriously impeded any real progress. 

A comment attached to Collins' commentary suggested that New York’s Battery Park area would be the ideal location for the museum, an idea suggested by a former Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Tom Collins, early in the museum’s planning stages. While New York City was probably the best proposal so far, it is now law that the museum must be located in an unspecified New London location. 

In 2014 the Coast Guard submitted a funding plan of $80 million to Congress. The current cost to construct the museum is more likely in the $150 million to $200 million range. The dearth of funding, both corporate and individual, and the burn rate of the museum association’s overhead budget all point to a train wreck. If nothing happens, will donors get a refund? What’s the next step? Is there a chance to constitute a group of enlightened, competent advisors who don’t have hidden agendas that might propose a working game plan? 

Perhaps it’s time to consider a virtual museum. No brick and mortar required, costs would be drastically reduced, and the museum’s reach would be limitless; an approach the Smithsonian and other museums have been employing for years. 

Neil Ruenzel lives in Niantic.