Audit: Patriots Point Doesn't Have Money for Ship Repairs

A state audit of Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum finds that the  museum can't maintain or repair its fleet of ships without loans or grants from the state or federal government, according to the Associated Press.

It's not exactly an earth-shattering finding, since Patriots Point has said for some time that a national fund-raising effort, coupled with the development and lease of some its waterfront property, will be necessary to repair the USS Yorktown and to repay a state loan used to repair the USS Laffey.

Patriots Point has plans to build a Congressional Medal of Honor Museum in a deal that could bring more guests, but the report questions whether it will be beneficial, since the museum operators do not plan to pay rent or to purchase the land.

Soon the agency plans to release a redevelopment plan that will likely call for large-scale redevelopment of the waterfront tourist attraction. But the audit cautions that Patriots Point should review all its leases and move away from long-term leases that do not adjust to economic conditions.

DOCUMENTS: Read the audit summary. Read the full audit.

Patriots Point disputes some of the audit's findings, but its executive director says he is moving forward and will learn from the probe.

"We have a strong business plan that will allow us to not only sustain our operations for the long term, but which will also provide for the maintenance of our mission-essential vessels and facilities and provide the revenue to repay the loan used to restore the USS Laffey," said Mac Burdette, executive director.

The audit was ordered in 2010 by then State Sen. Glenn McConnell. The report involved five months of evaluation of Patriots Point. Employees spent more than 1,000 hours working with auditors, Burdette said.

"While we disagree with a number of recommendations offered by the audit team, whom we greatly respect, we universally accept the audit as an opportunity to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of our organization, and we realize that as painful as it might have been at times, it was time well spent," Burdette said.

Patriots Point spent roughly $9 million to repair the USS Laffey, a historic gun ship that nearly sank while under attack by the Japanese in WWII and then nearly went under again due to erosion while on display at Patriots Point.

The USS Yorktown has erosion damage of more than $80 million. And the submarine Clamagore is so badly eroded, Patriots Point says it won't attempt to repair the vessel and has turned that fund-raising task over to outside groups.