Like an anxious and nervous bride, Hawaii’s shipyard industry, with the help of state and city officials, is beginning an intensive two-month campaign to build a dowry, impressive enough to woo the basing of a battleship group here.
The target of the Hawaii Economic Development Project is at least one of two battleships: the USS Missouri, now being reconditioned at Long Beach, and the USS New Jersey, whose home is now Long Beach.
The focus of the group’s attention for the next 60 days will be the Navy, which will be sending officials here shortly to inspect the facilities at Pearl Harbor as well as to meet with local businesses, government and labor officials.
A favorable decision by the Navy could mean 900 new jobs at Pearl Harbor and more than $150 million annually pumped into Hawaii’s economy, according to Frank Manaut, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and head of the lobbying effort.
Gov. George Ariyoshi and Mayor Eileen Anderson will co-chair the move to bring to Hawaii a surface battlegroup, which is comprised of a battleship and its six surface vessels.
Manaut, at a news conference this morning, said Hawaii is just one of several “prospective brides out there.”
“It’s going to be a fight,” he said.
With the Navy saying that any port on the West Coast is in the running, Manaut said that bases from Bremerton in Washington state to ports like San Francisco, San Diego, Long Beach and Alameda in California also are working on ways to impress the Pentagon.
A decision from the Navy is due in December. If Hawaii is chosen, the battleship could arrive here as early as 1986.
The Navy has raised a lot of questions about the feasibility of basing a battleship group in the Islands.
Two weeks ago, Adm. James D. Watkins, chief of Naval Operations, told Manaut that his concerns deal mainly with military housing and the quality of island schools.
The Navy estimates that it will need at least 2,200 housing units by fiscal year 1988. …
The Navy also questioned Pearl Harbor’s ship repair capabilities.
Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar
