Saturday,
August 22, 1998
Battleship
panel to visit Bayonne site
By CAROL COMEGNO
Courier-Post Staff
The New
Jersey Battleship Commission plans to visit the waterfront in
Bayonne as it did in Camden and Jersey City in its quest to find
the best floating museum site for the battleship.
Commission Chairman Joseph Azzolina said the
tentative date is Sept. 3.
Bayonne officials said that date has yet to
be confirmed with the commander of the Military Ocean Terminal,
where the city and veterans groups are proposing to dock the
battleship.
"Since the commission went to Camden
and Jersey City, we wanted them to come here, too," said
Nicholas Chiaravallotti, an aide to Bayonne Mayor and Assemblyman
Joseph Doria, D-Hudson. "We don't know yet all what the
presentation will entail. Because of the way the terminal is
constructed, we may be able to offer more than one pier location
so the commission has a greater choice in where they want to
locate it."
The commission is awaiting final congressional
approval for release of the battleship USS New Jersey from the
naval reserve fleet in Bremerton, Wash., this fall. The commission
hopes to tow the ship back to New Jersey by the end of 1999.
Each house passed slightly different resolutions earlier this
summer that will be resolved by a conference committee.
The state commission visited Camden July 31
and Jersey City Aug. 7.
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