USS Ling Needs New Home

Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, The Record's parent company, has asked that the World War II submarine be moved from his River Street property. The tract, which the newspaper company leases to the New Jersey Naval Museum for $1 a year, is across the parking lot from The Record.

Last year, NJMG moved its manufacturing operations from its Hackensack headquarters to its Rockaway Township plant, leaving a large portion of the company's building vacant. Borg said the building is no longer suitable for office space, so he is in discussions to sell or develop the company's property, about 25 acres off River Street.

"We are looking at various options including building a new building on this property or either perhaps selling or leasing the rest of the property," Borg, who is honorary chairman of the museum, said Tuesday. "If the Ling were to leave, that would clear a couple of acres of land, so there are a lot of possibilities as to what could happen to this piece of property."

Figuring out where to move the 2,500-ton submarine and related artifacts is proving difficult for members of the Submarine Memorial Association, the non-profit group that runs the museum.

Some propose that the Ling be moved to Camden where it can join the USS New Jersey museum. I have two other suggestions that might be suitable.

1) Find another location in Northern New Jersey that would be suitable and close enough to its present location. The Meadowlands and the Xanadu project might be one such possibility. Putting the Ling in the Meadowlands would definitely increase its visibility and access to the submarine, which received one battle star during World War II.

2) See about partnering with the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum. The Intrepid is currently undergoing renovations and will reopen to the public in 2008. The pier where the Intrepid was berthed is being rebuilt, and the museum already has another submarine in its collection, though it is of more recent vintage - the USS Growler, which patrolled during the 1950s and early 1960s. The Ling was launched during World War II and has been restored to that condition.