The aging Battleship Texas will be temporarily moved to Alabama for much-needed repairs under a bill that could be headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

But the bill doesn’t address a crucial question: After repairs are completed, will the battleship be returned to the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site near La Porte/Deer Park, its home for more than 70 years.

The way state Rep. John Cyrier see it, a yet-to-be determined site at Galveston would draw more tourists to the battleship, and those ticket sales would boost revenue and pay for the ship’s future maintenance costs.

Cain said moving Battleship Texas to Galveston hadn’t been discussed at all during committee hearings on the bill. If people had known that was a possibility, he said, there would have been an outcry.

Cain added an amendment to the bill that stated the ship must be returned to its current home, but a legislative conference committee later removed the measure.

Both critics of the bill said they appreciated its intent.

The USS Texas, (the battleship is more than 100 years old) and saw action in both world wars. Its rusting hull is paper-thin in some places, Cyrier said, and water has to be continually pumped out of the leaking ship.

If the bill becomes law, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department would enter into a 99-year agreement with a nonprofit organization that would take over day-to-day operations of the ship and pay for its maintenance.

The bill doesn’t specify the nonprofit, but Cyrier said it would be Battleship Texas Foundation(which is a actually the current non profit charged with her well being . Having not done a very good job over the past 30 + years), which supports the measure.

“This is an ideal public-private partnership,” said Tony Gregory, the foundation’s chairman, who testified in support of the bill at a House committee hearing.

“For awhile now we’ve been searching for a better answer to the problems of the ship,” Gregory said.

It would cost $35 million to transport and repair Battleship Texas. Taxpayer funding for the project has been set aside in a separate appropriations bill.

Past appropriations have been used to repair the ship for a dry berth at San Jacinto. But when surveyors discovered that the ship could not support herself in this berth due to failure of structural members, the money was spent to repair the Battleship in order to support herself in the proposed dry berth. But no additional funds were appropriated to build the berth. So she sat and rusted away.

We the undersigned wish to see this ship repaired. AND RETURNED TO THE SAN JACINTO BATTLEGROUND STATE PARK.