05/17/2006

Ship won't be retiring in home port

Mackinaw may be going to Mackinaw City

By sheri mcwhirter

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

CHEBOYGAN — Plans are sunk to keep the soon-to-retire U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw in home port.

Not enough money was raised to keep the historic ship in Cheboygan, so an existing dock site in Mackinaw City may become the final destination.

"I'm very disappointed, of course," said Jim Muschell, mayor of Cheboygan. "It's a sad day for the city. Hell, it's been home port for 62 years. It's part of our heritage here."

The ship is set for decommission on June 10 but may remain at a nearby mooring site until summer 2007. The new icebreaker Mackinaw will take over the older ship's duties and longtime mooring site in Cheboygan.

Meanwhile, the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum hopes to preserve the cutter as a working ship museum. The group has about $200,000 in donations and pledges.

The price tag to buy needed property along the Cheboygan River in Cheboygan and build a proper mooring is upwards of $3.7 million, while the former car ferry dock in Mackinaw City requires minimal improvements at a cost of $700,000.

"See how that pushes the decision-making process?" said Michelle Hill, president of the museum group. "Plus, there's already a tourism base there."

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials will decide in June whether to allow the ship at the Mackinaw City dock that's undergoing a major harbor renovation.

Hill said museum board members delayed the decision to change plans from Cheboygan to Mackinaw City.

"It took a long time to give up," she said.

Mike Grisdale, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, said the ship museum would have been nice for Cheboygan, perhaps spurring more developments.

Visit www.icebreakermackinawmuseum.org for more information.