A years-long saga surrounding the future of the National Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis appears headed toward a conclusion.

The Newport City Council in Rhode Island will vote Wednesday on whether the city’s armory should be sold to the National Sailing Hall of Fame. The vote could pave the way for the Hall of Fame, which has been located in Annapolis since 2005, to move to Newport.

Newport’s City Council voted in April to move forward with the possible sale of the armory. Newport built it in 1894 for local militia, according to a history of the property included with past city bid documents.

Gary Jobson, president of the sailing hall of fame, said the armory arrangement works for the organization. He said the deal would include waterfront access via a dock for exhibits, berthing of historic yachts and public outreach activities.

The National Sailing Hall of Fame has been located in Annapolis since its inception, operating out of a building leased by the state at City Dock. Plans from the outset called for converting the historic 19th-century waterman’s home into an operations center and museum.

Last February, the state extended the lease on the Captain William Burtis House at 69 Prince Georges St. for three years. But the state required the Hall of Fame to file an annual update on the requirement that it raise $9.5 million to begin construction.

Jobson said last August the Hall of Fame has $2 million in the bank and a state promise for a $1.25 million grant. An anonymous donor has pledged another $1 million. That leaves the project well short of the $9.5 million the state called for.

This past January, Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state had withdrawn the promise for the $1.25 million in capital funding. That money was deauthorized in Hogan’s 2019 fiscal budget in part, because the National Sailing Hall of Fame had failed to meet fundraising goals.

The Hogan administration also has not given the organization another $2 million originally planned as a follow up to the $1.25 million grant.

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley has proposed a public-private partnership to build a hotel, an underground parking garage and a home for the hall of fame at City Dock. Jobson said that idea has some merit, but noted that it is a long way from reality and the hall of fame probably cannot wait that long for a permanent home.

If the Newport City Council approves the sale this week, Jobson said, the National Sailing Hall of Fame would proceed with a survey of the armory building by engineers. Then its board of directors would vote whether to proceed with the purchase.

Jobson said the board consists of 25 individuals, 11 of whom have ties to the Chesapeake Bay.

“Some members of our board are very passionate about keeping the Hall of Fame in Annapolis,” Jobson said. “I would not even attempt to predict how that vote is going to go.”

School board names 13

to citizens advisory panel

The Anne Arundel County school board appointed 13 county residents last week to two-year terms on the executive panel of the countywide Citizen Advisory Committee, a 30-member panel that advises the board on issues affecting the school system.

The vacancies came about through resignations or the expiration of terms of former representatives.

Those named are Cara McCandless, who will serve as Annapolis Secondary representative; Sharlee Fleshman and Kyle Weist, Arundel Cluster Secondary representatives; Morgan VanArsdall, Broadneck Elementary representative; Maria Array and Chad Jones, Glen Burnie Secondary representatives; Laura Boone and Benjamin Birge, Meade Secondary representatives; Maggie Cerria, Old Mill Elementary representative; Celeste Fernandez Buzzer and Susan Franklin, South River Secondary representatives; Jessica Greer, Southern Secondary representative; and Carrie Cleveland, at large representative.

—Staff reports