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Iowa meeting today

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  • Iowa meeting today

    A high-ranking Navy official plans to meet Monday with the Vallejo group that recently lost use of a Mare Island berth where it planned to berth the mothballed USS Iowa battleship.

    The meeting could revive plans by the group, Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square, to restore the huge ship and open it as a museum on Mare Island, the site of a former Navy base.

    Capt. Chris Pietras of the Naval Sea Systems Command is scheduled to meet with the group's leader, Merilyn Wong, and with city officials in hopes of identifying a new spot on the island to berth the ship, which saw action in World War II and the Korean War.

    The USS Iowa was present at the surrender of Japan that ended World War II in 1945, and transported President Franklin Roosevelt to talks in Europe in 1943.

    The Navy recently reopened bids for homeporting the USS Iowa after notifying the Vallejo group that it had not made enough progress in finalizing its plans. Groups from Los Angeles and San Pedro are also known to be seeking the ship.

    But developer Lennar Mare Island met with Wong's group this week in hopes of finding a new location to berth the giant ship, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper.

    LMI spokesman Jason Keadjian told the newspaper that company and city officials met with Wong to discuss her group's business and fundraising plans.

    Wong said her group needed a statement from LMI that another site was available, possibly north of the Art Ship, and would be able to submit a revised bid to the Navy by the end of next month, the newspaper said.

    The site originally proposed for the ship was recently committed to a new facility operated by a vessel recycling firm, Allied Defense Recycling of Petaluma.

    The USS Iowa is currently anchored in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay near Benicia.
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