Moving memorial is sign of disrespect

The Dec. 31 Royal Oak Tribune picture of the Royal Oak Downtown Park evidences disrespect for our veterans, the 2007 ballot proposal and fundraising for the Veterans Memorial, and the goal of having green space downtown. The Tribune picture shows an installation that is at least as much concrete as green, not the “urban glade” promised. More shocking is the Veterans Memorial treatment.

The memorial has been shoved aside from its carefully landscaped central “stage” immediately south of the Library Terrace to a corner south of the butterfly garden. Online plans show the memorial denuded of its landscaping and grass, enclosed instead in pavers surrounded by concrete: no grass or surrounding plantings other than some large trees.

The Memorial will lose its “stage/amphitheatre” setting for veterans’ ceremonies, providing space on the grass, the library sidewalk, and the library terrace for participants to gather. Moreover, the memorial area will no longer be an attractive gathering place for children, nor will there be plantings and flowers demonstrating our respect for our veterans.

Didn’t we vote in 2007 to dedicate the Memorial area as parkland for the Memorial? Didn’t the community raise $180,000 to move the memorial from its former obscure location to this lovely landscaped space? Didn’t we pay for landscape design and engineering for this space? Why is it being diminished?

The Royal Oak I’ve cherished would not make such decisions without a ballot initiative, at the very least on moving the Veterans Memorial.

Wallis May Andersen

Royal Oak