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May 1, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Given the recent atmosphere of outrage and anger over memorials placed in public spaces, one would have expected City Council to have at least paused to think, and perhaps seek some public input, before giving their blessing to the Keuhners’ request to place a memorial to Gold Star Families at Jordans Point.
There is no mention of space for memorials in the so-called master plan for Jordans Point. And once you’ve opened the door to memorials, how do you close it? What happens when someone wants to put up a memorial to honor forgotten Klansmen, and a new City Council is just fine with that?
Personally, I am all in favor of honoring Gold Star Families, but Jordans Point is the wrong place to put 25,000 pounds of concrete and granite replete with a 60-foot flag pole. Jordans Point has been under water before, and it will be again. When 25,000 pounds of concrete and granite are tilting at a 30 degree angle because the soil beneath it has washed away, what do you do with it?
Jordans Point is a tiny place, and the only thing resembling a nature park that Lexington has. It is filled with people almost every day - people walking or running, playing with their kids, fishing, picnicking, swimming, putting boats in the water, looking for wildflowers, watching birds. Often there are so many people there you can’t find a parking place. By all indications, it doesn’t need a playground or a sound stage, or a war memorial to improve it. Is it really so hard to just protect it, and leave it alone? PHILLIP WELCH Rockbridge County
