It has been 10 months since PHMCThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the state agency that stewards the U.S. Brig Niagara and Erie Maritime Museum. The PHMC is responsible for the collect... has taken full control of US Brig Niagara. In that amount of time, I see the connection to the Erie area fading and my concerns are growing.

The initial disconnection of Niagara to our community was the firing of FNL as an operator of Niagara. The repercussions of that led to the loss of jobs of the Captain and crew of the ship. Jobs lost in our community.

The next disconnection of Niagara to our community was the lack of volunteer opportunities for those who have been dedicated to serving the needs of the ship . For the past 10 months, there have been only a handful of times that volunteers were allowed to help with work on the ship. The current Captain, Greg Bailey, has complained that volunteers haven’t been showing up, but that he can replace them. In a direct statement to me, he said that he wants volunteers, but doesn’t need them. A perfect example of that has been the hiring of professional crew to take the ship to Cleveland shipyard. No volunteers were allowed to participate in the transit, although many local volunteers have served as crew on past voyages and shipyard transits. Some folks on the volunteer rolls are actually professional sailors in their own right, including one that is currently sailing as Bosun on another tall ship. Not only did Bailey exclude volunteers, but he passed over local crew with experience (and at least one veteran) in getting the ship to shipyard. Instead, he hired a Canadian company to do the work that local, qualified sailors could have done. Another case of disconnecting the community from Niagara.

And finally, since PHMC has taken control, there has been no 501(c)3 involved with Niagara. That means that those in the community who wanted to support the ship are now unable to do so through a non-profit.

Add all this to the fact that the community cannot even take deck tours on the ship. That means no Mariners’ Ball, no Christmas Tree Ship, no special events that share the ship with the community that has supported it for decades.

I write to you because I fear that the disconnection between Niagara and our community is growing greater. One wonders if PHMC wants it that way, by making the ship inaccessible to more and more people, in a variety of ways. If there is ever a time for a public forum, it is now. I implore you, as PHMC Commissioners and as Northwest PA Legislators, to push for a public forum with PHMC, and for it to be held in the immediate future.

Ginny Sivak
Concerned citizen of Erie
Concerned Niagara volunteer

Author’s Note: Feel free to modify this letter and pass it along to your state and local representatives.