City gives VFW okay to develop plan for veterans memorial

Concept for former water tower site will be created

The Clear Lake City Council, on a 4-1 vote, has given its approval for V.F.W. Post 4868 leaders to explore design ideas to locate a veterans memorial at the former downtown water tower site.

The Council met Tuesday, Sept. 8, in regular session.  Placement of the item on the agenda was the first time since early summer.  The issue has been in discussion for more than a year and at one time involved a citizen task force which ultimately became deadlocked and was unable to give the Council a recommendation for location of a memorial.

At the meeting, VFW Post Commander Mike Nelson asked the council for their approval to earmark the former water tower site for the memorial.  He requested that the city donate the land to construct the memorial and asked that RDG Consultants, or a similar alternate, be named as a consulting firm to assist the city and the VFW with design concepts, site preparation and other professional insight into the project.

Council representative Gary Hugi was the only member of the Council to vote against the motion.  Hugi said he would need to see a site plan with dimensions, how much area the memorial will use, and be assured that it will not affect the view of the lake.

Mayor Nelson Crabb, at-large Councilman Mike Callanan and City Administrator Scott Flory, who have met with VFW leaders and others to work on the issue said those planning the memorial need a location in order to finalize details.

“It’s a long way from being a done deal, but we seemingly have come up with an outline on that location of something, that if professionally designed and financed could work,” said Callanan. “This has been a contentious issue for quite some time.  We all feel its time to move forward.”

Any final design would have to be approved by a vote of the council.