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[i]On Tuesday, the Downey City Council approved the temporary relocation of the mock-up to a large tent on a nearby movie studio parking lot where, starting late this summer, people may be able to catch a glimpse of it... The city and the current property owner plan on spending about $157,000 for the mock-up to be moved out of the warehouse and into the tent. It's a temporary fix — just for a year and a half. This should give the city enough time to raise funding for a permanent home, said Guerra, who noted that the five-person City Council voted unanimously for the move. They need to act soon. The years of indecision have taken a toll. In 2003, Griswold Conservation Associates, an artifact conservation company, was contracted to produce a technical report of the model's condition, and it found that deterioration was already underway. "The outer skin of the shuttle, made of plywood on a wooden frame, is buckling slightly and showing signs of internal delamination," the report said. "Clear plastic, prismatic ceiling panels have fine crazing cracks, and are starting to become detached at their fasteners." Scott K. Pomrehn, executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, estimates that it will take $2 million to properly put it on exhibit.[/i]
[i]On Tuesday, the city council agreed to move the mock-up to a temporary shelter in the parking lot of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, which is also owned by the city. (The new commercial development and the space center are on the same former 160-acre Boeing site, so the shuttle won’t be moving far.) They don’t want to take it apart piece-by-piece, as happened in 2003 when it was carefully examined and moved to its current location. But even in two large pieces it’s too big to fit through the door, so the plan is to remove an entire wall of the room to pull it out. With $100,000 from the developer and an additional $70,000 from the city, the center plans to erect fencing and a large tent for it, and hopes to allow visitors in to see it within the next couple of months, according to the center’s Executive Director, Scott Pomrehn.[/i]
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