D-Day memorial announces layoffs

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation in Bedford is eliminating nearly half its staff as it approaches a winter expected to produce “very modest revenue,” according to the foundation’s president.

William McIntosh, president of the foundation that operates the memorial, said 11 of 24 positions would be cut by early next month. The eliminated positions would affect a mixture of full-time and part-time employees, he said.

“We’re now at the end of our busy season,” McIntosh said. “In the current economic environment, it is not prudent to think that our revenue is going to improve much over the next few months.”

McIntosh said staff members were told of the cuts last week, so no one was caught off guard. He said the eliminations were “reintroduced as an inevitability” during recent quarterly meetings.

“It shouldn’t catch the public by surprise, either,” he said.

The foundation this year cut back hours by 10 percent, suspended contributions to retirement plans and eliminated benefits to offset a drop in donations, McIntosh said.

Those measures were taken “with a degree of reluctance, clearly,” he said. “The one thing we are not going to do … is to go into debt.”

The memorial, located close to U.S. 460 in the western end of the city of Bedford, operates on a $2.2 million budget and generates less than half of its revenues from ticket sales, gift shop proceeds and tours. The remainder comes through donations, which McIntosh has said have dropped because of the weakened economy.

McIntosh said he didn’t have a specific dollar figure to show how much the cuts would save but said that they would serve to reduce that annual amount “effectively.”

While he didn’t specify which positions would be cut, he said each carried importance to the memorial’s goal to preserve the legacy of D-Day.

“The last thing to go is education, because that’s our reason for being here,” he said. “That’s absolutely vital.”

A resource center the memorial operates on East Main Street in Bedford would be dormant because of the cutbacks, he said, though it would be used for storage purposes.

“It takes away some levels of capabilities that are very valuable to us,” McIntosh said of the cutbacks.

The memorial was dedicated in 2001 and serves as a tribute to the fallen soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy during the largest land, air and sea operation in military history.

Nineteen soldiers from Bedford died in the first wave and the loss ultimately led to the decision to locate the memorial in the city.

McIntosh said the foundation is considering an option to close the memorial for winter months except by appointment only. If that step is taken, he said the foundation probably would announce it within the next month.

“We will do what we have to do to proceed,” he said.

Since the memorial’s financial troubles were made public earlier this year, lawmakers have worked on legislation to have the National Park Service assume management. President Barack Obama signed a defense bill last week that authorizes a study into that possibility.

An assessment team from the park service arrived in August to conduct research at the site for several days to determine if it could be declared a national monument through the federal Antiquities Act, a way to speed up the process.

The legislation signed by Obama, and advocated by Democratic Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, and by Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, is a more extensive process.

“While we work on a longer-term legislative solution, the memorial is having to make tough cuts like so many businesses and nonprofits in our area during the economic downturn,” Perriello said Monday in a statement.

“Thankfully, they have tremendous volunteer support, and I know the community of Bedford will do whatever it can to keep the doors of the memorial open while we continue our efforts to bring it in the National Park Service.”