 Hi, I'm Leslie McVane. Welcome to Portland Media Center, member highlights. Today we're out on beautiful Casco Bay on the Bay Mist with friends of Fort Gorgeous. It is a beautiful day and I'm here with the President of the Board, Roger Burley. We've got about 50 people here on the Bay Mist, the Casco Bay Line's party boat, and so we're just trying to acquaint as many people as possible and hopefully new people, new to Portland or new to Fort Gorgeous, to what a gem this is out in the middle of Portland Harbor. People have probably been looking at this thing for a hundred or so years wondering what that is out there, why can't they get to it, why can't we get to it. But here we are, we're circling the fort and introducing people to the present and the future of Fort Gorgeous. So thank you. And the plan is to work with Casco Bay Lines in the city to be able to take people visiting the city or anyone out to the fort in the not too distant future. Very soon and we are going over the legal ramifications and jumping through those hoops with the city. They're very supportive of us but they move very slowly and cautiously and we see ourselves as the ticket to saving the fort which is in serious physical distress and we think that by familiarizing a lot more people through events we will be able to raise money that the city of Portland is not able to do to eventually stabilize the fort physically and save it for many, many generations to come. And it's even more important now with access to the waterfront being diminished every day with the building that's going on for people to be able to get on a boat and go out in the harbor and see one of our landmarks is really, really important. Absolutely. People, yeah, public access. We will provide public access to the fort and we will provide access through arrangements with tour operators and through the city of Portland. We've already done our cultural programming at the fort that we weren't able to publicize because of our relationship with the city but we've done it, we've demonstrated it, it was successful. In 2016 we also funded an economic impact study. We know the value of this, we have hard numbers believe it or not. The fort, without our tours without special events today already the fort is contributing over a million dollars to the local economy. And once we start doing tours and special events those numbers are going to really ramp up. Something you may not know, without a dock there's over 7,000 people that visit the fort just in the peak summer months every year. So we have all this data, it's proving to be very useful. That was 2016. In 2017 the Army Corps showed up and did a half million dollar safety improvement project. That's done. And here we are in 2018. We're on the verge of launching an access project. We're going to beef up that stone pier where the flagpole is and install some bollards and hopefully by the end of this year and if not this year definitely 2019. We're going to pull this vessel alongside and have a paying audience of 300 attending events out the fort. We're there in Frederick. Hi Erin. Hi Leslie. And you have been involved in so many things on the waterfront in Portland. For all the years I've known you, what got you involved with the Friends of Fort Courgettes? Well it's been such a resource here on the bay for all the programs I've been involved with Ripple Effect and the Friends of the Przomska River, which I'm staring at the river mouth right now. It is a gem unlike any other. I was 19 years old when I first paddled out here, borrowed a friend's kayak and wanted to see what that strange castle was out in the water. And interestingly had a couple of three-year-olds here today look out and say wow look at that castle. So it is a magical place and it's obviously from another time and reminds us that our history here is deep and rich. So I think making sure we take good care of this resource and make sure it doesn't crumble is important. It is and for those two little kids running around here today for them to be grandfathers someday and be able to take their grandchildren out here and show them this beautiful place. Absolutely and especially at this time where for 60 years the city's owned it. It hasn't needed a whole lot and we're realizing now as we go out in the winter and see big icicles splitting the case mates that we need to invest in this resource now. So it's it's time to pay attention to this big beast out there on the water. I'm now with Steve Russell who's the newest board member of Friends of Fort Gorgeous. Hi Steve. Hi, how you doing? Good text coming. So you're a longtime manor, right? Born and bred, call me a native. Where did you grow up? Right in Portland? Right in Falmouth, right down across the way there. So you've been looking at this fort for a while? I've been not looking at it, going around it and in it all my life. Yeah, absolutely. So what made you want to join the board? Well interestingly when I first heard about it was while I was at a seminar on salvage and Metfall and we were I was listening to what it was up and and he told me about Friends of Fort Gorgeous and the first thing I thought of was you know here we go you know as a local and oftentimes groups come in and take over properties and they change the way it always was and they'll kind of you know felt that resentment and then I was in my boat right about where we are right now headed towards the fort and I thought why complain why not get involved check it out see what's involved and get on the get on the inside of you know like it change it you know or you may be surprised well when I got on the board when I joined the group and gutting ball and heard what was going on and what the Friends of Fort Gorgeous is up to and the desperate situation that the fort is in I became extremely excited and very very much interested to do anything possible as well as recruit others because it it does bring everybody a sense of joy to be able to actually partake and I mean I can actually do something yeah you can and everybody wants to get involved so it's a really wonderful was it's a wonderful enterprise I'm glad to be in it it is and everyone I talked to all the board members Friends of Fort Gorgeous they get that same smile you just know it really is it's infectious it really is infectious to have such a to be involved with something as magnificent as an edifice as Fort Gorgeous is without any you know any experience in any particular industry or anything like that it's it's all going for a good cause I'm now with David Plack another board member of Friends of Fort Gorgeous hi David hi how are you fine what's your background in this well I'm an old friend of Paul Dronan so that he's going to ask me to be on the board but I also go way back in journalism in Maine I was with the Bangor Daily News for a lot of years and main times and Island Institute and stuff like that so I have a background in words and pictures and what what drew you to accept the offer of being on this board of directors I'd looked out at the fort like everybody else around here for years and I'd seen Fort Sumter in Charleston and that's an enormous tourist attraction in a national park and here's this wonderful place standing here at least I hope it's still standing here and it's an enormous opportunity and I thought well how how interesting that is and Paul brought me out here I hadn't been here before then and it's really an exciting place to see and well it's turned out to be a lot of fun and it's so close to Portland the idea that you can't get to it is frustrating for people so this will make access possible that's our hope and you know it's a complicated process and we've you know it requires time and patience the city's the owner and they have every right to be concerned about liability but after a while we kind of think come on folks yeah I'm now with Paul Drynan a mover and shaker of Friends of Fort Gorgeous hi Paul hi Leslie so tell us why you're doing this why am I working with the Friends Group yes I love Friends of Fort Gorgeous because I've been going to the fort since I was a teenager and I recognize it as the amazing iconic place that it is I've always had a fascination with it I love construction and architecture and I just know that it is an underutilized space and there will never ever ever be another Fort Gorgeous so we have to save it for future generations and we're doing it and judging by the people here in the excitement a lot of new people people from out of town you're you're making a difference people are getting excited people are excited they've been excited for a long time and it's funny we do have more and more people from out of state we've already started doing tours this year we've already taken people from out of state out to the fort so new Fort Friends from away and it's amazing how on a regular basis I still meet people who grew up in Portland spent their whole lives here and they've never been to Fort Gorgeous because they don't have a boat well we want to fix that we want to get people out to the fort introduce them to the space we need all the help we can get to make this reality I'm now with Hilary Bass at the executive director of Greater Portland Landmarks hi Hilary hi Leslie great to see you it's great to see you now this fort is it part of Greater Portland Landmarks is it well the fort is one of the great city landmarks but actually it's it's a place we named Greater Portland named as a Greater Portland Landmarks named as a place in peril a few years ago and it's because it really needs a lot of work but it is one of the places that people really identify with in Portland Harbor it's a very special place and these places in peril that's how you got started they were starting to tear down very important historic buildings in the city and Greater Portland Landmarks said wait a minute let's start this yeah the city of Portland was in peril in fact we started when Union Station was torn down in 1961 and that's what got the preservation movement started so you're right places in peril started landmarks and there's still places today so preservation is still much needed in our Greater Portland area so do people come to you for instance friends of Port Gorgeous and other places in peril come to Greater Portland Landmarks said we need help we need you to look at what we have and help us save it absolutely so when we do places in peril we take nominations from the community and Paul Drinan who was working on the board came to us and said what do you think how can we get more awareness and we said you know naming a place a place in peril is a good way to get the community aware of what's out there and I think that it's really been a great partnership that Landmarks and and the Friends of Port Gorgeous have had because we we actually host their board meetings in our building and we really want to see these projects succeed because everybody benefits when a landmark is saved.