DALLAS — The Texas Legislative Budget Board has approved the release of $25 million of voter-approved general obligation bonds to preserve the aging battleship USS Texas, but it will be at least a year before the bonds can be issued.
The board sent a letter authorizing the release of the bonds to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which oversees the battleship anchored at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site in LaPorte, about 25 miles from downtown Houston.
The battleship bonds are part of $1 billion of GO bonds for state facilities approved by voters in November 2007.
Parks department officials said it will take at least a year to complete an extensive environmental review and other studies, which are required before the bonds can be issued. At best, the work could be completed by late 2013.
The Battleship Texas Foundation said it has raised most of the $4 million for the battleship effort required by the state before the bonds can be sold. The Texas Public Finance Authority and the Bond Review Board must also approve the bonds before they can go to market.
Proposition 4 of the state’s 2007 bond package stipulated that the proceeds would be used to build a permanent dry-berth facility for the battleship, but did not specify a location. The dry-dock facility would be filled with fresh water to reduce deterioration of the steel hull caused by salt-water exposure.
The letter from the Legislative Budget Board said the proceeds would be used to repair the ship’s deteriorating hull and build the berthing facility at the battlefield site, where Texans defeated a Mexican army in 1836. The battleship has been moored there in brackish water along Buffalo Bayou near the busy Houston Ship Channel since 1948.
However, a bill requiring a study of where the ship should be located is pending in the Legislature, and at least one historical group with ties to the battlefield site wants the USS Texas moved to Galveston Island, about 10 miles away.
Friends of the San Jacinto Battleground said the Galveston location would allow more visitors to the battleship. The ship is out of place at the 19th-century battlefield, association president Jan DeVault said.
State Rep. Wayne Smith of nearby Baytown said the permanent dry berth should be built at the current site because the battleship’s hull is in such bad shape that a move could damage or sink the vessel.
“Any attempts to move the Texas could result in further damage to the ship and possible interruption of the Houston Ship Channel traffic should the Texas take on water and even possibly sink during tow,” Smith said. “We came dangerously close to losing her last time she was towed for repairs.”
The USS Texas was commissioned in 1914. The ship, armed with 14-inch guns, provided shore bombardment support for Allied landings in North Africa in 1942, Normandy in 1944, and Iwo Jima in 1945.
