Misinformation persists about moving Royal Oak War Memorial

Last Saturday my wife, Deanna, and dog, Luna, took our weekly walk to the Farmers Market. At the South entrance to the Market, we were asked to sign a petition. The petition was to prevent the move of the War Memorial until the public had the opportunity to vote on this issue.

I was on the committee to oversee the selection and initial design process. I am asking the petitioners to abandon this effort and everyone to not sign this petition. Here are the reasons.

There is some misinformation by the petitioners that lead them to this effort. We need to clear this up.

One petitioner stated that we did not carefully consider keeping the Memorial where it is and did not present options to do this. This is not true. An option to keep it in its current place was presented by the designers on December 19, 2019. This is public record. That same person stated that the public, and in particular veterans’ groups, did not have an opportunity to voice their concerns. This is not true. As part of the extensive public engagement process, that you can read about at this link https://www.romi.gov/1338/ Downtown-Park-CommunityEngagement, there were multiple workshops, meetings, discussions and an online survey.

That same petitioner also stated that the proposed bathrooms were being eliminated because of the cost of the Memorial move. This is not true. The bathrooms, which will cost about $300,000 to build, were going to be part of a future phase. The rough plumbing will be installed in this phase and the bathrooms later, when it is determined that they are needed. Note that the Memorial move is far less costly than the bathrooms. Money saved by not moving the Memorial would not have been sufficient to put the bathrooms in, in any case.

The specific question of moving the Memorial was posed in the online survey. Every citizen had the opportunity to take that survey and 80% of those that answered said they were open to moving it. There were also many public meetings throughout the process, beginning in 2018, and many veterans attended these meetings and voiced their opinions. We on the committee and the designers listened carefully and respectfully to everyone.

One veteran at the Market said that they were told to sit down and shut up. He said they were disrespected. This is not true. There was no disrespect in any way. We took their concerns into account but in the end believe overall quality of the park was more important than the issue of a small move for the Memorial. Disagreement is not disrespect.

In our considerations we understood there would be cost to move it and some people would be upset. We explored options that left the Memorial in place but, ultimately it was clear to everyone, unanimously on the committee and the world class park designers. that the Park and the Memorial would be better if the Memorial was moved slightly East and South of where it currently is.

Here is a brief synopsis of our thinking. We felt the Memorial should be in a place that is both open to the public, with enough space for large gatherings, but solemn, cradled by landscape for people to visit and pay their respects. If it left where it is, there will be a busy park at its back.

The Memorial was not designed to be viewed from the back. It would feel out of place. The new location offers a green backdrop for the monuments that will be less exposed to the busy park area. Very much like the green backdrop it currently has.

This is a big public improvement project that will provide benefits and enjoyment for the Royal Oak community for hundreds of years. The current bid cost is $5,411,439. You can see the cost of the Memorial move is very minute, relative to the overall budget. The Committee felt the move was more important than the relatively small cost to move it.

I understand this is not really about the cost. Some veterans feel that it is not respectful to move it. Many of us remember when it was located in the middle of the parking lot. That was a disrespectful location. This move was carefully and respectfully considered. The Memorial is being moved to a beautiful location.

When it comes to this petition, money is the issue. We all know, costs continue to rise over time. Everyone should know that delaying this carefully designed and wonderful project for a public ballot will increase the construction cost of the Park by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I implore the petitioners to abandon this effort and I ask that everyone, please do not sign this petition. It is detrimental to our City. The delay will cost us a great deal of money. Let us move forward unimpeded so we can have this beautiful park completed within the next year and enjoy it for many years to come.