Two of three city council members who voted to take down a veterans memorial in an Iowa town were kicked out of office last week; the third decided not to stand for re-election.
The city council of Knoxville in central Iowa voted 3-2 to remove a memorial crafted by an area resident from a park in town. The decision came the Monday night before last Tuesday’s election.
Carolyn Formanek and April Verwers were the two members voted out of office. Formanek has served two terms on the council, while Verwers was a member since 2009, according to the Des Moines Register.
The memorial, which is a wooden silhouette of a soldier kneeling by a white cross, was not placed in the park by the town, but by the local chapter of the American Veterans. The group also maintains a “Freedom Rock” at the location. Vietnam Veteran Al Larsen made the fallen soldier memorial in honor of a friend of his who died in the war. He donated it to the AMVETS chapter several months ago.
Dan Goff, a town resident who organized a well-attended rally in support of the memorial, said, “What bothers me is for hundreds of years, this cross has been used as a tombstone marker for the fallen.“ Taking it down “offends me greatly because I know how much this means to so many people,” he added.
The town’s mayor, Brian Hatch, told WHOTV, “The city did not go take it down because at the point we didn’t feel like it had any more significance than as a monument to honor the veterans.” However, the community then received a letter from the atheist group Americans United for Separation of Church and State threatening legal action if the memorial was not taken down.
In issuing its threat, the organization “pointed to a similar instance in North Carolina in January. Americans United reached a settlement with King’s City council, which agreed to take down the monument and have the city’s insurer pay half a million dollars to Americans United for legal fees,” according to BizPac Review.
With a potential lawsuit hanging over its head, the Knoxville City Council voted to remove the soldier silhouette monument to private property and replace it with a bronze one depicting combat boots and a bayonet-tipped rifle planted in the ground.
“I hope it brings some closure to it,” Mayor Hatch said regarding the vote. “I hope we can kind of achieve the best of both worlds. We avoid a costly lawsuit and at the same time we still have the silhouette memorial up honoring the veterans, right across the road hopefully, on private property.”
But that may not be the end of the story. While Ian Smith, an attorney with Americans United, is satisfied with the outcome, the memorial’s creator may not be. Larsen’s attorney, Roger Byron with the Liberty Institute, told the Des Moines Register, “It’s completely unnecessary to move it.” He added: “It’s completely lawful where it is…We’re talking over our options with our client.”
http://www.westernjournalism.com/ci...zens-teach-them-a-lesson-theyll-never-forget/
The city council of Knoxville in central Iowa voted 3-2 to remove a memorial crafted by an area resident from a park in town. The decision came the Monday night before last Tuesday’s election.
Carolyn Formanek and April Verwers were the two members voted out of office. Formanek has served two terms on the council, while Verwers was a member since 2009, according to the Des Moines Register.
The memorial, which is a wooden silhouette of a soldier kneeling by a white cross, was not placed in the park by the town, but by the local chapter of the American Veterans. The group also maintains a “Freedom Rock” at the location. Vietnam Veteran Al Larsen made the fallen soldier memorial in honor of a friend of his who died in the war. He donated it to the AMVETS chapter several months ago.
Dan Goff, a town resident who organized a well-attended rally in support of the memorial, said, “What bothers me is for hundreds of years, this cross has been used as a tombstone marker for the fallen.“ Taking it down “offends me greatly because I know how much this means to so many people,” he added.
The town’s mayor, Brian Hatch, told WHOTV, “The city did not go take it down because at the point we didn’t feel like it had any more significance than as a monument to honor the veterans.” However, the community then received a letter from the atheist group Americans United for Separation of Church and State threatening legal action if the memorial was not taken down.
In issuing its threat, the organization “pointed to a similar instance in North Carolina in January. Americans United reached a settlement with King’s City council, which agreed to take down the monument and have the city’s insurer pay half a million dollars to Americans United for legal fees,” according to BizPac Review.
With a potential lawsuit hanging over its head, the Knoxville City Council voted to remove the soldier silhouette monument to private property and replace it with a bronze one depicting combat boots and a bayonet-tipped rifle planted in the ground.
“I hope it brings some closure to it,” Mayor Hatch said regarding the vote. “I hope we can kind of achieve the best of both worlds. We avoid a costly lawsuit and at the same time we still have the silhouette memorial up honoring the veterans, right across the road hopefully, on private property.”
But that may not be the end of the story. While Ian Smith, an attorney with Americans United, is satisfied with the outcome, the memorial’s creator may not be. Larsen’s attorney, Roger Byron with the Liberty Institute, told the Des Moines Register, “It’s completely unnecessary to move it.” He added: “It’s completely lawful where it is…We’re talking over our options with our client.”
http://www.westernjournalism.com/ci...zens-teach-them-a-lesson-theyll-never-forget/
