HTA will pay to keep Arizona Memorial open during federal shutdown

The Hawaii Tourism Authority said it has agreed to provide $126,000 in emergency funding to keep the USS Arizona Memorial visitor center staffed and open during the government shutdown.

Aileen Utterdyke, president and CEO of Pacific Historic Parks, a nonprofit that supports the Arizona Memorial, said the tourism authority approved the emergency funding this morning, and will start Saturday.

Utterdyke said the move by the tourism authority is “fabulous.”

Pacific Historic Parks and the three other nonprofit museums that operate in the orbit of the Arizona Memorial have used their own funds to pay salaries and utilities for the National Park Service to keep the visitor center open during the government shutdown, now in its sixth day.

The authority, funded through state taxes, was established in 1998 through a legislative act to serve as the state’s lead agency supporting tourism, Hawaii’s largest industry.

The site of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 — centered on the sunken battleship grave for over 900 men — is one of Hawaii’s most visited tourist attractions.

According to the National Park Service, 1.95 million people visited the Arizona Memorial in 2017, just under the 2 million who visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island.

The government shutdown coincides with one of the busiest visitation times of the year for the Pearl Harbor museums, officials said.

The three other museums, the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum rely on admissions and sales to stay afloat.

Pacific Historic Parks also fundraises and receives income from the bookstore at the Arizona Memorial.

The four nonprofits combined were putting up about $18,000 of their own money each day Saturday, Sunday and Monday to keep the park service operations funded, Utterdyke said.

The nonprofits also committed about $14,000 a day Wednesday through Friday this week, with Utterdyke hoping the tourism authority emergency funding will start Saturday. The lesser amount of $14,000 a day was needed with scheduled vacation time reducing the total, she said.