THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 29, 1995 TAG: 9505290033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Condemned to the sad fate of having cities that front on cornfields instead of oceans, Iowans have swung behind Norfolk's attempt to get the battleship bearing the state's name as the next-best thing to docking it in Des Moines.
Now an Iowa brewery president has hit on a fund-raising idea that could pay to tow the Iowa from Philadelphia, moor it and make it ready for tourists.
Are you ready for S.O.S. Amber Ale?
If all goes well, Dallas County Brewery outside Des Moines will release such a beer Aug. 14. That's V-J Day: the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific, the war the Iowa helped win.
The beer would be sold in three-color, 22-ounce bottles with a sketch of the ship plus historical information on the back, said Kevin Rice, president of the Dallas County Brewery Co. And $1 from each bottle would go to the fund-raising effort.
Rice said he plans to produce 3 million bottles. Estimates on how much it would cost to bring the battleship to Norfolk and open it to visitors are in the $3 million range.
``It's the kind of thing Iowans get behind,'' said Rice of the ship-saving effort. ``We take a lot of pride in the state and things that reflect the state.''
The federal government is giving away the Iowa, plus three other Iowa-class battleships, to whomever can provide a good home for them. A group of Norfolk officials and citizens set sights on the Iowa after a visit to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where it is docked.
Councilman Randy Wright, who led the group to Philadelphia, left Friday to meet with Rice. The two were to meet with Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad that afternoon. Wright and Rice hope to have the state designate the beer project as an official tie-in to the 150th anniversary next year of Iowa's admittance into the union.
Rice said the bottles would be worth collecting. A special heat process would apply three colors directly to the glass. Rice hopes to market the beer in Iowa, Virginia and perhaps the rest of the country as well.
Although Rice is pulling for Norfolk to get the ship, and has been working closely with Wright on the project, the money raised through beer sales would be put into an escrow account and not awarded until the Navy picked a home for the ship. At least one other city, Patriot Point in South Carolina, is competing to get the ship.
The micro-brewery that Rice owns occupies a city block in a redeveloped section of Adel, a town outside Des Moines. The beer it produces is marketed and sold in Iowa and neighboring states, Rice said.
KEYWORDS: U.S.S IOWA by CNB