“The city accepted the ship with the covenant that the ship would be maintained and covered. And the maintenance has not been good, and a building or a cover never occured.”

“Having been on the (Duluth) City Council on and off for 18 years, I saw this happen all the time. There are these things that get done, then there’s no maintenance, then there becomes a crisis or they tear it down, and then they forget about it. But then there’s this new grandiose project that everyone jumps on and on the bandwagon. … The city’s got what, 150 parks and designated areas and about half of them or more than half of them aren’t properly maintained. And then you have a very significant historic ship that did something that nobody had ever done before, and the city has this unique item, a one-of-a-kind, and it’s kind of lost.” “Politicians come and go. There has been a lack of vision from mayor to mayor to mayor. We’ve spun our wheels.” “We’ve done all this stuff but have never gotten the ultimate commitment from the city to do what they originally agreed to do.” “It has been 30 years worth of frustration.” “It’s the not seizing upon the jewel the city has in this ship: That’s the frustrating thing.”