Last time, you remember, we talked about the future location of the brand new museum. Many meetings have taken place since then and dollars have wisely been spent acquiring professional guidance in matters relating to land usage, building codes of Island County and information regarding State of Washington rules and regulations.
The current property owners have been kept up-to-date on our findings and have possibly learned some things of which they, themselves, were unaware.
It has been, and will continue to be, a ‘process’ through which we need to travel before buying any land and building what we hope will be the finest new museum in the Pacific Northwest. These things are new and challenging to most of us former military types. The bureaucracies of governments large and small are intended to prevent abuse by the overeager and protect the citizens. Sometimes it takes a while to learn the lingo and work within the system. Believe me, many of us are trying hard, and learning.
On a very positive note, all of the governmental folks we have dealt with so far have been positive and even encouraging regarding our goals, dreams and aspirations. They are good folks doing their best to serve their communities and constituents, and they want us to succeed. After all, this new museum of ours will serve our communities, eventually providing us even more opportunities to share the histories of Naval Aviation and its impact on the great Pacific Northwest. Even as I write this, there are classic aircraft that will be available us .just as soon as we have hangers for them. We have very good connections with major museums not only in our own geographic area, but across the country. When the capacity is available, new aircraft, artifacts and memorabilia will have even more room for display and study.
Stay with us. We will pass along all the good news as it happens. The story is continuing.
–Jim Siggens
Chairman, Board of Trustees, PBY Memorial Foundation
