Dear Niagara petition signers,

We are still without a public meeting on Niagara’s future. It is time to take further steps. 

Andrea LoweryAndrea Lowery, serves as Executive Director and Chief of the Division of Architecture and Preservation for PHMC., Executive Director of 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..., responded to our formal letter but made no mention of our primary request for a public forum. She delivered the same rosy intentions and vague information they keep repeating to the media. What’s more, at the Erie Maritime Museum’s (EMMThe Erie Maritime Museum (EMM) is a cultural institution located in Erie, Pennsylvania, dedicated to preserving and showcasing the region's maritime heritage. Established in 1997, ...) volunteer meeting this past week the volunteers were told right off the bat they wouldn’t be allowed to ask any questions. When they insisted on asking, Jim HallJames E. Hall is the Site Administrator for the Erie Maritime Museum and a PHMC staff member. He replaced Walter Rybka in December of 2020. His background includes 13 years with th..., EMM Site Administrator, either had no answer or vague answers. At times he even contradicted information in PHMC’s official statements. 

NEXT STEPS:

1. YOU have the power. Call or email your legislators directly and ask for a public meeting. The more of us that speak to them directly about these concerns, the more they are likely to listen. Tell them you want a public forum and real answers.
2. Forward this petition to others who want transparency and accountability. We’re already over 800. Let’s get over 1,000.
3. We will be delivering the petition signatures to legislators this week.
4. Right to Know requestsA Right to Know (RTK) request is a request for information from a state or local government body in Pennsylvania. You are allowed to request any kind of information, and aside from... are beginning…

Here is a sample of questions volunteers still have after those closed EMM volunteer meetings:

• While Niagara’s former Chief Mate has shown PHMC staff how to do a daily brig check (review water levels in bilge and electrical system status), do they know what to do if something is wrong? If something is wrong, who will fix it?
• Who is doing the long list of winterizing tasks FNL was not allowed to perform with the abrupt contract end? The temperatures have been dropping below freezing and the engines are not yet winterized. If the bubblers stop overnight and ice forms, who is going out there in the orange safety suits on floating docks to hack it away? What happens if the plastic cover rips in a wind storm? Who will repair that? 
• In 2020, why did PHMC defer Niagara’s major refit project yet again, for an additional 3-5 years?
• What are the Certificate of Insurance (COIThe Certificate of Inspection(COI) is a legal document issued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) confirming that a vessel meets specified safety and operational standards. It ...) implications of moving Niagara away from being a sail training vessel? How does PHMC plan on registering Niagara with the Coast Guard?
• If the programmatic future is for day sails, how will that be run successfully? Niagara is not the best day sailer. It takes too long to ready and maneuver the ship, passengers are unable to have a clear view outside the ship, the large crew needed increases the cost, etc. How do they plan on making this successful?
• The next Great Lakes Tall Ship Challenge festival season is 2025 (celebrating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal). Jim Hall did not mention Niagara sailing again until 2026. Will Niagara participate in Tall Ships 2025?
• Wasn’t Niagara supposed to attend the Navy’s 250th anniversary celebration in Philadelphia in 2026? Didn’t the US Navy and the PA Governor request that the ship travel there for the celebration? At the volunteer meeting and in PHMC’s recent press release, it states Niagara will sail Pennsylvania’s Northwest Coast for the 250th celebration. Why did this plan change?
• PHMC claims they will try to maintain existing crew, but the existing crew is looking elsewhere while some have already taken positions on other boats.
• Crew members come from around the country for these seasonal, highly-skilled jobs. Their room and board were formerly included on the ship. This is standard within the tall ship industry. Does PHMC expect the new crew to only operate during daylight hours and find their own seasonal housing? Are they intending to pay standard sailor rates or increase their pay to accommodate these additional housing costs? Do they believe they can find licensed sailors locally? 
• PHMC said all questions can be emailed to the EMM Site Administrator, Jim Hall. But that keeps everyone’s questions and answers separate, individual, and isolated. We all want to see these answers.

Over and over again PHMC repeats their intentions for Niagara to sail, but their actions consistently demonstrate the opposite. She has sailed five months over the past four years. It could stretch to five months over six or seven years. The two seasons she was permitted to sail were shortened because PHMC either delayed essential decisions or outright denied maintenance and operations. Furthermore, legislators had to step in to ensure both sailing seasons happened at all. If PHMC is entirely in control themselves, who is going to sound the alarm and step in to enforce the sailing season in the future?

We want to see that PHMC has a plan and not an idea. The US Brig Niagara will not remain afloat, nor have a sailing season, through pleasing comments and press statements. 

TAKE ACTION: Contact your legislator directly. Ask for a public forum.

The more requests legislators receive, the more likely we are to get a public meeting.

To contact your PA legislators: Enter your home address in the state’s online Find Your Legislator tool. You can click through to find each legislator’s office phone numbers, or at the bottom of the page there is a link to “email senator” or “email representative.”

Contact the Governor by phone, online form, or mail.

Remind your legislators… Don’t Give Up The Ship!

We’re in this together,

Katie Zawrotniak, fellow Niagara supporter