S  E  N  A  T  E     R  E  S  O  L  U  T  I  O  N

ENDORSING AND RECOMMENDING THE CONCEPT OF THE AIR, LAND AND SEA HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY PARK AT QUONSET POINT

WHEREAS, The USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, Inc. proposes to locate at the Quonset carrier pier, in the Quonset/Davisville Commerce Park, as a patriotic, historical, educational and cultural center in Rhode Island; and

WHEREAS, The feature attraction of this museum will be the supercarrier USS Saratoga, to be associated with the nearby Quonset Air Museum and the proposed Seabee Museum; and

WHEREAS, For forty years, during three wars, Quonset Point was recognized and is remembered as the center of Naval and carrier aviation in the New England region; and

WHEREAS, There are one hundred twenty thousand (120,000) military veterans living in Rhode Island, many who served in the Navy and Marines aboard carriers; and

WHEREAS, The Saratoga Museum will honor those and all veterans and their families, especially the sixty-five thousand (65,000) who served aboard the Saratoga and her World War II predecessor, as well as the many thousands who trained and worked at Quonset/Davisville; and

WHEREAS, The Saratoga project has the potential to be a positive influence in Rhode Island and an economic engine proposing to pay for itself by attracting tourism, educating youth and creating jobs; and

WHEREAS, The Saratoga project can be complimentary to other ongoing and planned development at the Quonset/Davisville Commerce Park; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations hereby endorses and recommends the concept of the Air, Land and Sea History and Technology Park at Quonset Point and urges timely and favorable consideration by the Governor and the Economic Development Corporation; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Governor and the director of the Economic Development Corporation.