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Forts Trumbull and Griswold are highlighted in the news this week

Forts on both sides of the river got a lot of press this week, and with good reason. Thursday’s “Night and Day” section of the New London Day announced the annual commemoration of the Battle of Fort Griswold (September 6, 1781) that will be held at the Ebenezer Avery House, located on the lower part of the fort on Fort Street. Reenactors will be battling it out this Sunday (September 6th of course), the British side featuring—of course—Norwich native Benedict Arnold. The following week the Avery-Copp House on Thames Street will host Groton History Day, and will feature a soldiers’ encampment, a musket firing demonstration, activities and artisan crafts. Both events are free.

But as former submariner Phil Houk reminds us in his “History Around the Corner” article in the Mystic Times, there’s “lots to learn at Fort Trumbull State Park and Museum.” Extolling the virtues of both the site and the exhibit space, Mr Houk writes that “the stone fort has been used over its 225-year history for striking at British invaders and for storage while the site housed a modern research and development center for anti-submarine warfare. It its current form of restoration it should be visited by young and old and its story told.” A state-issued Charter Oak pass (for residents age 65 and older), as well as museum and state park passes obtained from local libraries, allow you to visit sites like Fort Trumbull free of charge; otherwise the admission is $10.

So even though you won’t be able to get there on a water taxi (yet!) why not plan to spend the weekend soaking up history at two incredible forts just minutes away from each other?

Want to know how the Transition Team is doing? Come to a meeting!

The Thames River Heritage Park Transition Team meets every 4^th Wednesday at 8AM at the beautiful Fort Trumbull Visitor/Conference Center, 90 Walbach Street, New London. You’re welcome to attend a meeting to see how progress is coming on establishing the non-profit entity that will eventually be coordinating the Heritage Park’s activities.

Our Water Taxi dreams are coming true

The Day published a great article today on the Water Taxi Planning Sub-Committee’s successful activities over the past few weeks, and you can read it on line with a subscription. Navy Vessels Sought For Water Taxi, by Judy Benson.

With the help of Transition Team Member and Groton City Mayor Marion Galbraith, John Mathias of NAVSEA sent the City’s request for two utility boats to the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services of Norfolk with the strong recommendation that DLA consider the request favorably. This is a huge step towards final approval of the boats, which have been in storage for 11 years and will need a marine survey before being transported to an area marina for retrofitting.

It is the Team’s plan that sometime in the future the City of Groton will turn over the boats to the new non-profit that will be formed to oversee the Thames River Heritage Park’s operations. In the meantime, with the fiduciary help of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, of which Chair Jim Butler is a member, and promised allocations by the participating municipalities, the boats will undergo the first stages in their outfitting and storage in preparation for the 2016 season.

As we mentioned in previous posts, the legislature has also awarded the TRHP and its Transition Team $100,000 annually for two years; much of this allocation will go towards the water taxis and their eventual operation, and the Water Taxi sub-committee is already in discussions with a potential contractor who is well-known, experienced, and respected in the area and would be responsible for all aspects of the taxis’ operation. Together with this contractor the sub-committee is putting together a list of costs and plans that include keeping the boats as close to their original design as possible, so visitors can travel between historic sites on a true Navy utility boat. Very cool.

*This is a standard Navy utility boat that was refurbished in 2006 by civil service mariner crew members for emergency medical aid in San Diego. Photo by MCC Edward Martens.*

At Wednesday’s second meeting of the entire Team, the Organization sub-committee put together a tentative timeline that emphasized the need to definitely have preliminary operations in place by next year, and an established 501 c 3 agency and Board of Directors in place by Memorial Day. We all agreed there was a lot of work to do before then, but we’re going to try and keep as close to this schedule as we can, and by the next summer season we’ll be handing the reins over to the permanent agency overseeing the Thames River Heritage Park. How exciting!

It was a busy weekend along the Thames River

The Fort Griswold Monument in Groton was the site of a ceremony commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II on Friday, August 14^th. Hosted by the City of Groton in conjunction with the SUBVETS, American Legion and Fleet Reserve, the public ceremony honored the courage, sacrifice and service of the men and women of the “greatest generation.” Speakers addressed the ending of the war from the local perspective of civilians, military and Electric Boat.

Fort Griswold with the Groton Monument. The Revolutionary War fort is one of the four anchor sites in the Thames River Heritage Park.

Visit the Day online or Groton’s “Summer in the City” page for more details.

Meanwhile, across the river, New London welcomed the Coast Guard barque Eagle back to its homeport at City Pier after a summer of training exercises, just as New London received its new designation from the US Coast Guard as a “Coast Guard City.” The designation, as noted in the Day, recognizes the long term relationship between New London and the Coast Guard stretching back to 1790. “The event brought together a Who’s Who of Connecticut’s government and Coast Guard officials,” including Vice Admiral Sandra Stosz and City Council President Wade Hyslop, who noted that the designation is “bestowed upon only a handful of cities, and New London is proud to be one of them.”

The TRHP Communications Sub-Committee Visits Fort Trumbull

When the Communications sub-committee met at the Fort Trumbull Visitors’ Center in New London, members were so impressed that they suggested it as one of the possible venues for a TRHP informational presentation for key supporters this fall or next spring. Indeed, anyone living in the are who hasn’t visited the fort really owes it to themselves to see the amazing structures, state-of-the-art museum, and vista of the Thames River that make up one of the TRHC’s main attractions.

The Friends of Fort Trumbull has a great website with lots of photos and information on the history of the fort and upcoming events. Also make sure to visit DEEP’s official Fort Trumbull website. But after you’ve done that, by all means go over to the park itself (Walbach Street off Howard Street) and make a day of it.

Joining the sub-committee at the Visitors’ center were Al Levere, State Parks Historian and author of the about-to-be-published State Parks Centennial History, Diane Joy, Supervisor of State Parks, Outreach and Education, and Bruce MacDonald, Director of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, coming up soon (September 9-12) so mark your calendars.

The TRHP Communications sub-committee and guests, from left: Deborah Donovan, Ellen Cummings, Tom Tyler, Al Levere, Diane Joy, Penny Newbury, Chris Cox, Laura Nadelberg, and a bit of Bruce MacDonald. Not pictured: Penny Parsekian, Chair (taking the photo).

As with the Finance sub-committee, the Communications committee agreed to take its marching orders from the Governance and Organizational sub-committee, who will be meting shortly to draft a mission and vision for the new agency, as well as a short-and longer term strategic plan. However, this didn’t seem to slow the Committee down; a preliminary marketing plan draft was shared with other members, who agreed to combine it with some additional marketing documents and build upon it once the Governance Committee had met.

The Committee also appointed Chris Cox as the Team’s spokesman, with Penny Parsekian as backup, for answering queries from the public and media outlets.

An important discussion point at the meeting was the need to identify, prioritize and target all potential stakeholders in the heritage park plan, in order to make sure that everyone understands the purpose of the park and its inclusionary nature, the goals of the Transition Team, and the importance of the THRP to the unification and connection of all the sites. As the Chair so succinctly put it, “We’re trying to make a visitor experience coherent.” So the first group from which to elicit continued support will be representatives, employees and volunteers from the heritage sites themselves. The second group would be community leaders and funders, followed by the business community in and around the park (whose initial core encompasses Fort Trumbull, Fort Griswold, and the New London Downtown area, to be followed by the Nautilus Museum). Then, agreed the Committee, we would have a great support base from which to begin to conduct outreach to potential visitors.

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