Evansville officials downplayed recent comments from an LST 325 board member that suggested the World War II ship was prepared to leave the city next year if it was not moved to a more prominent spot on the riverfront.
This weekend, board member Chris Donahue told local television stations that the ship could move to Peoria, Ill., if a less-remote location cannot be found in Evansville.
“It would be unacceptable to be here in 10 more years at Marina Pointe,” he said during an interview on Sunday.
Ella Johnson-Watson, a spokeswoman for Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, said the fact that LST board members are discussing moving with other cities is not a surprise. In December, Peoria’s city council started the process of determining the cost of moving the ship there on the Illinois River. Johnson-Watson said Peoria officials have been “courteous,” during their pursuit of the ship, which has been in Evansville since 2005.
“We have known for quite sometime that they were being courted by Peoria, Ill., as well as Jeffersonville, Ind., which has dropped out of the running, (but) they’re continuing to talk to Peoria,” she said.
A spokesman for the city of Jeffersonville confirmed the Indiana city near Louisville, Ky., was no longer pursuing bringing the ship there long term. Peoria’s assistant city manager Christopher Setti said his city is still finalizing an offer to try to bring the ship there. On Monday, he told the Courier & Press that he hopes to formalize an offer for the ship by sometime next month, pending the city’s council approval. He said Peoria officials have had talks with board members about a possible location if they decide to relocate to the Illinois city.
“It would be a really fascinating and amazing asset for either one of our communities to have,” Setti said about the LST 325.
Johnson-Watson said Winnecke hopes the LST remains in Evansville and renews its contract with the city. Negations are set to continue on Thursday. She noted that Winnecke started discussions about keeping the ship in Evansville beyond the current contract shortly after he took office in 2012. She called moving the ship to a location with more foot traffic one of board’s top wishes. However, Johnson-Watson said it was unknown at this time whether a location could be found to meet that request.
“We’ve been continuing to discuss a variety of their concerns and we’re working with them on addressing them,” she said. “In fact, we’ll be sitting down with LST leaders this week to start more formal negations with them, in addition to the discussions we’ve been having all along.”
Donahue did not immediately return a phone call from the Courier & Press on Monday. However, he said he believed Winnecke was trying to address the board’s concerns in an interview with The Associated Press.