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The consensus among folks who have commented publicly on Lexington City Council’s recent decision to approve a Gold Star Memorial is that they support the concept of honoring families in our community who have lost loved ones in military conflicts. Everyone appears to be supportive of the idea of such a memorial – just not necessarily at the proposed site at Jordans Point Park.
Like many who have expressed an opinion on this issue, we were surprised with the speed in which Council granted the request to allow the memorial at Jordans Point. The action was taken without referring the matter to relevant city entities for further review and without any attempt to elicit public input.
In the weeks since Council took the action, citizens have been offering their input in letters to the editor of this newspaper. Many are objecting to putting the memorial at Jordans Point because of the island’s limited space and its ecological fragility. Much of the island is susceptible to flooding.
A memorial on the scale proposed – four granite panels ranging from 3 to 6 feet in height and weighing 15,000 pounds atop a concrete base weighing 10,000 pounds – seems a bit much for Jordans Point. The proposal runs counter to the idea of preserving Jordans Point in its natural state. Nowhere in the master plan for Jordans Point Park is a memorial contemplated, let alone one of this scale.
The specific location originally proposed for the memorial – a site near the pavilion – is on higher ground that has not historically been subject to flooding. Still, we believe there may be better sites elsewhere in the city that ought to be considered for the memorial. For instance, an appropriate site could perhaps be found in the vicinity of the Brewbaker athletic fields complex.
We think it would be a good idea for the city to initiate a process to gather public input on where the best site for the Gold Star Memorial would be. It may have been better to have held such a process prior to Council making its decision to allow the memorial, but it would still be a prudent course of action.
We urge City Council to seek and consider public input before taking further action on determining exactly where the memorial is to go. Many thoughtful comments have been forthcoming. We are confident that many other people in our community are anxious to offer their thoughts on this matter as well.
We are all for honoring the families of men and women who have given their lives for our country. We commend Washington and Lee University student Jaden Keuhner for leading the efforts to bring a memorial honoring these families to our community. We hope everyone can get behind these efforts and to also help guide city officials in determining where the best location for the memorial should be.
Gathering public input was critical to developing a master plan for Jordans Point Park a few years ago, just after the low-water dam was removed, allowing the Maury River to flow unimpeded past the point, as it had previously for millennia. Any changes to the master plan, not to mention implementation of such changes, should not be made without further attempts to elicit public input.
