National Harbor Project

County officials tout economic, work opportunities at children's museum

A real estate developer's plan to involve more Prince George's minority-owned businesses in the construction of the new National Children's Museum at National Harbor has county officials optimistic about the effect on the local economy.

A project briefing for local businesses on the new $182 million, 150,000-square-foot center will be held Aug. 1 at the Clarion Hotel, at 6400 Oxon Hill Road in Oxon Hill, by County Councilman Obie Patterson (D-Dist. 8), museum project developer Reston, Va.-based Orr Partners and Mirinda Jackson, the county's Minority Business Enterprise compliance manager.

Orr Partners has agreed to award at least 30 percent of its contracts to minority-owned businesses and plans to focus on hiring locally from Prince George's County, said founder and president David L. Orr during a July 13 small business forum hosted by Patterson at Harmony Hall.

"We don't want you to feel afraid. We need you to bid on this job. They will need you to bid on this job," Orr told small business owners.

Sheila Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Governor's Office of Minority Affairs, said the state has a contracting goal of 25 percent for minority- and women-owned businesses, one of the highest in the nation, but the goals apply to state projects, not projects in the private sector.

Construction on the new facility on 300 American Way in Oxon Hill's National Harbor will begin early next year and is divided into two phases. The first phase, about 61,000 square feet, is scheduled to open in 2013.

Designated by Congress in 2003, the National Children's Museum, formerly the Capital Children's Museum, is a nationally recognized cultural and educational institution for families and children. In 2004, the museum closed its former location near Union Station in Washington, D.C.

Patterson told forum attendees the county "can do better" in terms of securing contract work for small and minority-owned businesses.

A recent review by the county's Office of Central Services that estimated that of the $298.2 million the county spent on procurements last fiscal year, $30 million, or 10 percent, went to companies based in Prince George's. Out of the $30 million, $13 million, or about 44 percent, went to local Minority Business Enterprise firms.

"They're well underserved," Patterson said. "We've got to get those numbers up."

Patterson said he is excited about the opportunities that the museum's new building will generate for the county.

Pearl Harbor tea service conjures spirit of peace : Pigeon Project ...

A Japanese war veteran in black robes sought to silently conjure the spirit of peace and reconciliation on Tuesday as he prepared tea over the watery graves of 1,177 Americans killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor nearly 70 years ago. The tea ceremony, an ancient Buddhist ritual, was performed for a group of dignitaries and hundreds of onlookers on a memorial built above the sunken remains of the USS Arizona, a battleship famously destroyed in Japan’s surprise bombing of the U.S. Pacific fleet.

The loss of life aboard the Arizona, which exploded in flames and crumpled into the sea within minutes of being hit, accounted for nearly half of the 2,390 Americans who perished at Pearl Harbor and other attack sites on the island of Oahu on December 7, 1941

The attack drew the United States into World War Two against Japan and Germany on the side of the Allies.

The tea service, symbolizing harmony, reverence and purity, was intended to strengthen the bonds of U.S.-Japanese friendship that have developed between the two nations over more than six decades since the war ended.

Although Japanese dignitaries have regularly attended Pearl Harbor remembrances each December over the years, the tea ceremony was the first of its kind conducted there. “Tea is the perfect tool to calm our hearts and to show consideration to one another,” said Genshitsu Sen XV, an 88-year-old grand tea master of the Urasenke School of Tea and a World War Two veteran of Japan’s imperial military. Sen spoke to reporters through an interpreter after the service.

The elaborate ritual itself, lasting about 15 minutes, was conducted in absolute silence on the USS Arizona Memorial, a white platform spanning the battleship’s sunken wreckage. BUGLERS PLAY TAPS The structure is a centerpiece of the larger World War Two Valor in the Pacific National Monument, administered by the National Park Service. Seated at a black lacquered table with bronze pots and bowls, Sen covered his mouth and nose with a ceremonial white cloth to keep him from breathing any impurities into the two bowls of green tea he prepared with solemn deliberation.

The bowls — one dedicated to the 1,177 war dead entombed beneath the memorial and one to world peace — were then placed on a wooden altar inside the Memorial Shrine Room where the names of the USS Arizona’s victims are etched in stone. Breaking the silence at the end of the service, two buglers in dress whites took turns playing American and Japanese versions of taps.

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