Navy won’t confirm USS Nimitz is coming to Everett

EVERETT — It’s clear the USS Nimitz will be moored in Bremerton in a year and a half.

Whether the aircraft carrier winds up at Naval Station Everett in 2013 was a bit hazy Tuesday.

U.S. Navy officials would not confirm or deny a powerful congressman’s statement the Nimitz will replace the USS Abraham Lincoln when the Everett-based carrier travels east for refueling of its nuclear reactors.

The Navy has approved what is known as an administrative homeport change for the Nimitz from San Diego to Bremerton for maintenance beginning in January 2011 and ending in December of that year, said Lt. Glenn Sircy, a spokesman for the commander of Naval Air Forces in San Diego.

“That’s the only thing we have approved at this time,” he said.

That didn’t go as far as the statement Sunday by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. It laid out a scenario in which the Nimitz will arrive at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for maintenance in December 2010 and succeed the Lincoln in 2013.

Navy officials briefed Dicks last week on the Nimitz’s relocation. They spoke with his staff again Tuesday to say no decision on the long-term future had been made.

That didn’t change Dicks’ mind.

“While the Navy appears to want to leave options open, we still expect this sequence of events,” said George Behan, Dicks’ chief of staff.

The Lincoln, which entered service in 1989, is scheduled for mid-life refueling of its nuclear reactors. That job is expected to take nearly three years at a shipyard in Norfolk, Va.

Political, civic and business leaders have known for years the Lincoln would be leaving and lived with not knowing what carrier, if any, would replace it.

While they’ve been asking, the Navy’s noncommittal response to Dicks didn’t worry a top Everett city official.

“We’ve been expecting something. We weren’t expecting an announcement presently,” said Pat McClain, executive director for governmental affairs. “The Navy has its timeline.”

The city doesn’t care which aircraft carrier is chosen as a replacement, only that one is chosen.

“What the Navy chooses to park here is their business,” he said.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.