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NEW ULM -- The New Ulm City Council will revisit the donation of a Vietnam veterans memorial in German Park, Thursday.
The proposed memorial would honor the six men who graduated from New Ulm who were killed in action during the Vietnam War: Dennis Wellmann, Daniel Lloyd, Henry Polzin, Timothy Sullivan, Steven Seemann and Rickey Slander.
The city was in favor of accepting the monument, as a Vietnam Veteran monument was viewed as a positive for this city, but there were some concerns on where to place it. The monument donor originally asked to place the monument in German Park near the U.S. flag.
This monument and its placement in German Park were unanimously approved by the Park and Recreation Commission and the Monuments and Cemetery Commission. However, there has been some concern from the Friends of German Park organization that the monument should be placed at another location.
German Park's master plan did not include military memorials and there was concern that there was insufficient room for the monument. In addition, it was believed other groups might request similar memorials in the future.
Concerned that this would set a precedent and other memorials would follow, the New Ulm City Council was hesitant to place the memorial in German Park. Several members of the council suggested it would be more appropriate to create a larger veterans memorial for the city at another location. This led to the creation of a commission to determine if an alternative option for a larger veterans memorial at a different location was possible.
The committee included City Councilor Eric Warmka, former mayor Bob Beussman, Tony Miller, Denis Warta, Tom Backer, Roger Klockziem and Michelle Markgraf. After a single meeting of the committee, a recommendation was made and approved that a section of German Park would be named Veteran's Square and the donated Vietnam Veteran panel would be installed.
The committee was primarily persuaded to make this recommendation by the anonymous donor who was revealed to be Bruce Lambrecht.
Lambrecht's primary focus was to create the Vietnam monument for German Park. The proposal was called Veterans Square and would be located in the 2,400 square foot space near the U.S. flag in German Park.
Lambrecht provided a list of 15 reasons German Park was his preferred location of the panel including the American flag already in the park, restroom facilities, performing arts center, proximity to downtown, the park's accessibility, the playground and the park already hosting special events.
He believes all these elements would generate traffic and more people would see the panel. He also did not believe the city needed to create another park unit specifically for veterans when park space was already available in German Park.
There was also concern from Lambrecht and other veterans that creating a separate Veterans Park would cost more and take too much time to complete.
Lambrecht said he was not opposed to an expansion of his idea, but he did not want to wait to honor Vietnam Veterans. He said if German Park was approved for the memorial and the later bigger idea came to pass, he would be okay with moving the Vietnam remembrance panel to the other location.
The commission voted to recommend the section of German Park be named Veterans Square and to accept the donation of the Vietnam veterans panel to be the first to go into Veterans Square.
Lambrecht also agreed to make his presentation for the city council at the first meeting in August.
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A public hearing on final assessment rolls for the 2020 surface reconstruct project will be held. The hearing is on the removal and replacement of the pavement at 8th North Street from Garden Street to Franklin Street; 2nd South Street from Front Street to Valley Street; 7th South Street from Washington Street to railroad tracks; 9th South Street from Front Street to Valley Street; Washington Street from 16th North Street to 17th North Street.
The final assessment roll for the project is payable over a 10-year period with a 2.60% simple interest charge on the unpaid balance.
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The council will hold a closed session for attorney-client privilege to discuss litigation strategy related to a property located at 1007 N. Minnesota St.