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Patriots Point terminates Medal of Honor museum lease

Staff //December 7, 2018//

Patriots Point terminates Medal of Honor museum lease

Staff //December 7, 2018//

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The Patriots Point Development Authority terminated its lease with the Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, ending, for now, the chances of a Medal of Honor museum at Patriots Point. (Photo/Patrick Hoff)

The Patriots Point Development Authority has terminated its 99-year land lease with the Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, citing the foundation’s recently launched nationwide search for a new location; a lack of progress in obtaining zoning approvals from Mount Pleasant; and a halt to the work to move Patriots Point Road.

The resolution, which the authority passed unanimously — with Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie abstaining — at a board meeting it called today, also requests that the foundation also return the $5 million donated by South Carolina for the museum’s development.

“I have to say, it is with some regret that we have been placed in this position,” board Chairman Ray Chandler said before calling for the vote.

Chandler said after the meeting that Patriots Point “has been an unrelenting ally of the Medal of Honor Museum Foundation in every aspect of its endeavor. … We have adhered to the terms and conditions of the lease faithfully despite outside influences that go back and forth.”

He said the board decided it had a duty to return the money and land to the state.

“We waited and waited and waited, and we just can’t wait with the state’s resources,” he said.

The resolution invites the foundation to reconsider Patriots Point for the Medal of Honor Museum after the nationwide search is completed, though it also would require that the foundation raise significant funds if Patriots Point is reconsidered.

“We are optimistic that after a search is conducted that whoever is on that museum board will reach out to us, and whoever is on that board in the future, we welcome that opportunity,” Chandler said.

He said that, for now, the Medal of Honor Museum is still aboard the USS Yorktown, where it will remain as long as the Congressional Medal of Honor Society desires. The society is the official organization of all Medal of Honor recipients and is based in Mount Pleasant.

“It is our board’s unanimous feeling that this museum was intended to be established in Mount Pleasant,” Chandler said. “We deeply regret that for whatever circumstance, the choice at this time is for another location.”

Haynie said he abstained from voting because he wanted it to be clear that this was the decision of the Patriots Point Development Authority alone and that any disagreements with the town played no role in the resolution.

He added that several things are unknown now with the lease canceled and that he plans to ask council members Tom O’Rourke and Kathy Landing, who in October were named as an ad hoc committee to gather information on the museum agreements, to see what the next move might be.

“This does not mean there will never be any chance for any museum to be built shoreside here,” Haynie said.

He said no announcements about a new museum should be expected in the near future because of the large amount of information that all parties must sift through and consider.

“There’s no reason to rush into another museum,” Haynie said. “The right structure and the right dynamics have to be in place, but no one on any side of this issue has said that there’s just not going to be a Medal of Honor museum at Patriots Point. We just have to sit down and see where things stand, and if there’s a path forward, chart that path.”

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