News Release

Academy officials recently contacted elected leaders from the City of New London to express interest in acquiring Riverside Park. Like any college that has outgrown its current footprint, the Academy has expressed interest in purchasing additional land. The Riverside Park property is the only undeveloped land bordering the Academy and provides the most economical option for future expansion.

The Coast Guard Academy has not expanded its footprint since the 1970’s. Since that time, women joined the corps of cadets and the institution established the Leadership Development Center, which touches nearly every aspect of leadership training in the service. In order for the institution to fulfill its long-term master plan vision, additional land will have to be acquired to support continued growth of new initiatives, which could include a Professional Development Center, a Cultural/Diversity Center, and an Admissions and Visitor’s Center.

On Monday, May 10, Academy Superintendent Rear Admiral Scott Burhoe addressed New London city leaders and concerned citizens regarding the proposed acquisition at a town hall meeting. Here is a transcript of his comments.

 

 

Mayor Pero, members of the New London City Council,

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Coast Guard’s interest in the property adjacent to the Coast Guard Academy, which is known as Riverside Park.

I spent some time yesterday watching video of a past City Council meeting where citizens spoke about Riverside Park, and many objected to its sale, mostly on the grounds of "once it is lost, it is lost forever."

I understand the sentiment concerning Riverside Park, and as the New London Day stated in a recent editorial, "the opponents are passionate and vocal."

In fact as we’ve been speaking with the City Council and City management about the Coast Guard’s interest in this property, we’ve said all along that a portion of the land should be set aside and remain Riverside Park.

Based on comments received, we balanced our needs with public concerns, and reduced the scope of the original request to approximately 14 of the 18 acre park, and did not include the waterfront in our proposal.

In addition, the Coast Guard Academy would play a role in ensuring this remaining property was well maintained through voluntary community service programs.

There may be some misunderstanding about where the City Council and the Coast Guard are in conversation about the property. We are very interested in purchasing the property, and the General Services Administration is working with us on a fair market value offer.

We’ve only been engaged in conversation; no offer has been made or solicited. This is where the Non-binding Letter of Intent comes into play.

I haven’t lived in New London my entire life. I’ve moved around every 3-4 years. But there may be no place I have lived or worked longer in my career than the New London area.

I have been stationed here three different times for almost 9 of my last 30 years in the Coast Guard. I currently reside in New London, about a block from Riverside Park.

I know the Park, and I have a deep appreciation for New London. The Coast Guard is a part of New London. We are not strangers, nor are we interested in doing anything that is not in the best interests of the people of New London, or the citizens of the Nation we serve.

Our job is to protect, defend, serve, and to save lives.

Like any college that has outgrown its current footprint, the Coast Guard Academy is interested in entering negotiations to purchase this property.

The property, once fully developed, would remain as open to the public as the Coast Guard Academy is today. We have open concerts, open sporting events, open plays, and are open for tours and sightseeing.

Two weeks ago we opened our campus to over 150 eighth graders to introduce them to sports, and generate interest in attending college.

Over the last three years we’ve increased our Partnership in Education.

This year alone we sent 100 volunteers to Bennie Dover Middle School.

We are excited about the new Science and Technology Magnet School at Winthrop, the school that borders Riverside Park. This makes us even more interested in the possibility of procuring the park.

It will lend itself to a natural partnership with that school, whose teachers and students would have access to our campus, not just the Riverside Park portion.

My long term goal is to have many students graduating from high school in New London who have an aptitude and interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, and who will have access to the fine education provided at the Coast Guard Academy.

The Coast Guard Academy’s interest in Riverside Park is not new. Based on my experience here in New London, and what I have seen as a neighbor of this property, I thought the city would recognize this as a situation where both the Coast Guard and the City could benefit.

Again using language from the New London Day editorial, the city could "retain a small urban park that the city can more efficiently and affordably maintain, while it would provide the academy property for substantial expansion.

Our long term plans call for upgrading our professional training capabilities, which means we will need a new Professional Development/Shipboard Simulation Facility. We also submitted a planning document for a Diversity/Cultural Competency Center. We propose calling this the Alex Haley Cultural Center.

In addition, we know that to remain competitive with other engineering colleges we will need to build a new engineering building. This will require us to move some athletic fields south.

Two years ago we build a new wing of cadet housing, so we could renovate our barracks. We are in the first phase of a five phase project which will rehabilitate our entire barracks, which you would call a dormitory. When this $80 million dollar project is complete, in 9-10 years, we will have the capacity to house almost 300 more students.

While no plans have been made for what to do with that increased housing, it is possible that a college preparatory school may be located here.

Any of these future projects, planned for 5-10 or more years into the future, will require more land. None of them can be accomplished without more land.

I can assure you that all these plans, and anything done by the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Academy, will be done with the same reverence for the environment we currently take on our facility.

The Coast Guard Academy currently spends over $100 million dollars a year, between our operating budget and the salaries of our faculty, staff, and cadets. This does not take into consideration the spending by nearly 2000 students who are not cadets who attend the Academy for conferences and courses of between two and five weeks.

Expansion of our campus and increases in programs offered by the Coast Guard in New London does represent an economic incentive if the Coast Guard owns the land.

My suspicion is that there were probably people opposed to the Coast Guard Academy receiving its current property in the 1930’s, as there probably were to the expansions over the last 8 decades. I believe in the long run the people of New London, and the people of America have been well served by each decision.

The Coast Guard has been a part of New London for the last one hundred years, and we would like to continue that relationship for the next century and beyond.

The land will still be owned by the people. It will be owned by the people of New London, and by the people of the United States.

Our interest in the land is to better prepare young men and women to protect, defend, serve, and save the citizens of this great Nation.

The land will remain in New London, and when fully developed will be more pristine than ever, and present an impressive view from the neighborhood beside and behind it, and from the shoreline.

It is possible that I misread what appeared to be a mutually beneficial situation. The Coast Guard would purchase underutilized land and develop it to add even greater value and economic prosperity for the community.

In closing let me say that I value our relationship with New London and its people. I want nothing we do to jeopardize that, or separate us from each other. The reason I spoke with the last three Mayors, and reached out to each City Councilor and the City Manager, was to be completely transparent about our intentions and the process.

My organization informed me on Saturday that if a Non-binding Letter of Intent, a letter which only means we are talking with each other about the possible sale, is not signed by the 20^th of May, the Coast Guard will not be able to put the steps in motion necessary to purchase the property this year.

Funding is more likely this year than in future years where the proposed federal budget for the Coast Guard is declining.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight, I look forward to answering any questions you may have.