The historic Thames Street Armory will not be home to a pirate museum after all.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Arrrrgh. Citing frustration with what he feels has become an overly political issue, a Provincetown-based treasure hunter has informed the city that he will not pursue a plan to bring his pirate museum and research center to the Thames Street Armory.
Barry Clifford, whose Whydah Pirate Museum was chosen by the Newport Redevelopment Agency last month as the preferred tenant at the soon to be revamped Armory, said that while he appreciates the opportunity to present his proposal, ultimately, the building just isn’t the right fit.
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Attorney General Patrick Lynch testifies before the first hearing of a special Senate Task Force on LNG.
STATE HOUSE – Picture Jamestown Harbor shut down; the Pell Bridge cleared of vehicular traffic; and armed security forces shutting down three-mile swaths of Narragansett Bay without warning. Now picture that happening twice a week, and you get a sense of what brought Attorney General Patrick Lynch to testify before the first hearing of a special Senate LNG Task Force on Tuesday.
“Just stand at Ocean Cliff and look out at Jamestown,” Lynch told task force members on Tuesday, and imagine the entire East Passage in a virtual lockdown.
That would be the case dozens of times every year should a proposal by Weaver’s Cove Energy LLC to construct a liquefied natural gas terminal in the middle of Mount Hope Bay receive federal approval. [click to continue…]
The Newport Spring Boat Show will be suspended this year in order to make way for a planned superyacht show in 2011.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but when it comes to yachts, it’s certainly more awe-inspiring.
And as Newport becomes an increasingly popular port of call for luxury yachts and their well-heeled owners, Newport Harbor Corp. has announced that it will suspend its Newport Spring Boat Show this year in order to focus on the launch of a superyacht show planned for the summer of 2011.
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Dredging at Perrotti Park is complete. Now, attention turns to the installation of expanded floating docks and a land-side gazebo. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – The barge slipped out of the harbor just as quietly as it arrived. After just four weeks on the water, work crews from Reagan Construction completed yesterday a dredging project at Perrotti Park that will soon make way for much needed dock space that will hopefully entice the expanded use of waterborne transit and make the harbor a bit more friendly to transient boaters.
In all, roughly 10,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed from the shallow sea floor and deposited in the Providence River. The dredging project is intended to enable full use of a new federally-funded dock installation at Perrotti Park scheduled for installation in the Spring.
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Plans are underway to bring a 1953 wooden packet boat to Newport as a harbor shuttle. (Photo courtesy Aquidneck Ferry & Charter LLC)
NEWPORT, R.I. – With dredging underway and water and land-side improvements expected to be complete in time for the summer season at the city’s downtown Perrotti Park complex, a commercial real estate executive from Portsmouth has plans to launch a new hop-on, hop-off ferry service that he hopes will become a destination attraction and a fixture in Newport Harbor.
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NEWPORT, R.I. – A proposal by a prominent treasure hunter to bring a pirate museum to downtown Newport has reportedly won out in a lightly contested sweepstakes to redevelop the Lower Thames Street Armory.
The Whydah Pirate Museum will relocate from its current home in Provincetown (above) to the Lower Thames Street Armory
Barry Clifford’s Whydah Pirate Museum was given the nod over a proposal by the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation to maintain the Armory in its present use as a small vendor antiques center.
Members of the city’s Redevelopment Agency apparently settled on Clifford’s proposal as the most suitable for the venue, which is slated for a major overhaul, during a meeting last week. According to one city official, Clifford’s vision for the site best fits with the city’s plan to convert the downstairs level of the Armory complex into a transient boater facility while at the same time should serve as an attraction that will hopefully bolster the Lower Thames Street area.
Members of the Armory Antiques Center have been notified that their proposal was not selected by the city.
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Dredging at Perrotti Park has begun. The work is being done in concert with an expansion project at the downtown dock area. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – To some, the crane in the harbor scooping sediment from the sea floor at Perrotti Park is a welcome sign of progress on a long-awaited public works project that promises to expand harbor shuttle service and improve the flow of disembarking cruise ship passengers during the increasingly important fall excursion season. But when the City Council was forced to hold a special Friday evening meeting to rearrange the funding stream for the project, some broader questions arose as to the process that got the crane moving.
At the meeting, which was held Dec. 18 at City Hall, Councilor Stephen C. Waluk was first to express concern over the request to allocate $26,746 from the council’s contingency fund to pay for the project, after a stream of state revenue fell through. It was the sole purpose of the meeting, and the council voted unanimously to approve the request, but not without first a request for some answers.
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Dredging at Perrotti Park have begun. The work is being done in concert with an expansion project at the downtown dock area. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Dredging has begun at Perrotti Park, where long awaited improvements will hopefully entice the expanded use of waterborne transit and make the harbor a bit more friendly to transient boaters.
Late last week, a barge loaded with a large crane slowly made its way into this downtown corner of Newport Harbor.
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NEWPORT, R.I. – The Newport City Council has renewed its opposition to a proposal that would bring liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments into Narragansett Bay.
An artist's rendering of what the proposed shore-side facility would look like should a proposal to construct an unloading platform in Mount Hope Bay is approved. (Courtesy Weaver's Cove Energy)
In a unanimous vote on Wednesday, the council approved a resolution introduced by Councilor Steven C. Waluk that expresses concerns over a plan by Weaver’s Cove Energy, LLC to construct an off-shore LNG terminal in the middle of Mount Hope Bay.
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An artist's rendering of what the proposed shore-side facility would look like should a proposal to construct an unloading platform in Mount Hope Bay is approved. (Courtesy Weaver's Cove Energy)
NEWPORT, R.I. – The developer of a proposed $700 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, which opponents claim would devastate the local ecosystem and disrupt recreational boating on Narragansett Bay, is disputing a scathing ad campaign aimed at rallying public opposition to the plan in the run up to a critical federal hearing process.
In a five-page letter addressed to Save The Bay Executive Director Jonathan Stone and released to the media on Friday, Weaver’s Cove Energy claims that the environmental group’s recently launched multimedia blitz against the proposal to construct an LNG offloading platform in the middle of Mount Hope Bay, purposefully uses “exaggerated, misleading, and inflammatory rhetoric.”
Dissecting claims made in the oppositional campaign, Gordon Shearer, president of Hess LLC and a partner in the Weaver’s Cove project, lambasted Save The Bay’s assertions, referring to them as a “cynical attempt to manipulate public opinion and raise funds for your organization.”
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The tall ship Harvey Gamage tied up at Fort Adams. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – While most boats have since vacated the harbor, late November brought the tall ship Harvey Gamage into port. The 131-foot schooner is one of three vessels sailing under the auspices of the SEAmester program, a 10-week ocean classroom experience for college students based out of the University of Maine.
Built in 1973, she features a distinctive low profile deckhouse, white hull, and two masts reaching 97-feet from the deck. She’s modeled after traditional coastal cargo vessels that used to traverse the Eastern North American coastline.
She’s currently berthed at Fort Adams adjacent to the Sail Newport dock.
Councilor Steven C. Waluk is hoping the City Council will be once again come out against a proposal that would bring LNG through Narragansett Bay.
NEWPORT, R.I. – As opposition to a proposal by Weaver’s Cove Energy to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the middle of Mount Hope Bay mounts, one local official wants Newport to once again weigh in on the controversial issue.
In a resolution to be considered at the City Council’s Dec. 9 meeting, Councilor Steven C. Waluk writes “this proposal could have significant negative economic and environmental impacts on the east bay region, including periodic bans on boating along the East Passage, temporary closures of the Pell and Mount Hope Bridges and extensive dredging causing destruction of fish habitats in Mount Hope Bay.”
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Repairs are planned for the west berm at Easton's Pond, but the design has some neighbors expressing concern. (Photo by Lynne Tungett)
NEWPORT, R.I. – An estimated $6 million is being tagged for safeguarding one of Newport’s drinking water sources at Easton Pond.
The residents and neighbors surrounding Newport’s Easton Pond were mailed a notice in early November regarding a request from Newport’s Director of Utilities, Julia A. Forgue for a “State of Rhode Island Water Quality Certification to repair and improve the north and west embankment of Easton Pond.” The notification was from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM).
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The Oliver Hazard Perry, seen here arriving in Newport in October 2008, is bound for Providence on Monday. (Photo by OHPRI)
NEWPORT, R.I. – The hull of the soon-to-be-built tall ship Oliver Hazard Perry is heading up-bay for the winter, where it will undergo major steel and mechanical work at Promet Marine Services on the Providence River.
Departure of the ship has been set for approximately 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning and the tow is estimated to take between 3-4 hours.
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Newport, RI
