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CENTRAL POINT Central Point neighbors oppose Vietnam memorial location Say plans come with too many negatives for city park Comment By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 5, 2015 at 5:34 PM By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 5, 2015 at 5:34 PM » Social News Central Point residents may be as patriotic as anyone, but some are drawing the line at plans to add a replica of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in a city park that already contains a large war memorial. Neighbors of Don Jones Memorial Park say the Vietnam memorial, to be built alongside the existing Oregon Fallen War Heroes Memorial, would affect safety, hurt property values and create more traffic congestion. Project coordinators from the Southern Oregon Veterans Benefit, which is spearheading the 493-foot wall, say plans can be modified to address valid concerns. City officials say both sides are jumping the gun, and note the project is far from approved. Announced last summer, the wall was first planned for Medford's Veterans Park, near the intersection of South Pacific Highway and Stewart Avenue, but tight space and the layout of the park made that impractical. With an existing memorial already in Don Jones park, Central Point city officials were open to discussing the project. After it was reviewed by the Parks Commission last month — the first of three steps in the application process — Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore said commission members voiced concerns about traffic and the size of the memorial in relation to the rest of the park. A meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 140 S. Third St., will give planning commission members a chance to review plans for the project before the City Council makes a final determination in coming weeks. Karen Murphy, a resident of the Central Point East subdivision, said the project was largely "flying under the radar" until neighbors began to voice concerns. Murphy helped circulate a petition, garnering 135 signatures in opposition to the project, which she said will be presented to the planning commission. "We got a letter that the city had a proposed project that could go in but they only sent a letter to a few of us that are right here by the park. When I found out about it, I immediately went down to City Hall to find out what they were planning to do," Murphy said, noting that previous park projects were not well received by neighbors upset with how many features had been added to the park space. Murphy said neighbors are concerned about safety for kids who play and ride bikes in the streets and walk to the park. Neighbor Sandra Thomas, who helped collect signatures for the petition, said the memorial would be better suited to a larger municipal area. "When we as a group took papers around to the neighborhood, nobody knew anything about what they were planning to allow in the park let alone the parking spaces they plan to add in front of our houses," Thomas said. Ron Kohl, president of the veterans group spearheading the wall, said the project plans were still negotiable and that his group would move forward for the wall to be built regardless of location. "All we are doing is going through the process. The first process was the parks and recreation (commission), now the second process is to go through the planning commission. These people came out of the woodwork at the last meeting and now we will have an opportunity to address their issues," Kohl said. "The issues, some of them are outlandish and some of them are very valid. We're not worried about the valid ones because we can work with the city to move ahead and rectify those. The bottom line is that this is an issue of 'not in my back yard.' This memorial is for everybody, not just the people who live next door to the park." Homeowner Bill Best, a veteran who served 42½ years between the Navy and Army, applauded the project but agreed it should go elsewhere. Best, who helped build a memorial at Medford's Veterans' Park, said the Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center in White City was a better fit. "There's a lot of room out there at the 'Dom' and that would be the more logical place for it to be. When the traveling wall came out, that's where they put it and it got a lot of visitors," Best said. "We already have two roads that come into Central Point East. When the park went in, they wanted to put basketball courts on North Mountain and a lot of people were opposed. Even police officers said the congestion would be too bad. They ended up putting everything at the other end of the park for that reason, and this thing they want to build is an awful lot bigger than basketball courts." Thomas and Murphy said the atmosphere, while the least of residents concerns, was also a bad match for the memorial. "The city advertises our park as a water park," Murphy said. "When the water goes on in the morning for the water park, kids start screaming nonstop until the water is turned off again at night. How can they have this very reverent memorial where people want to pay their respects?" Kohl said he was optimistic that the project would be built soon, regardless of location. "I'll be given a chance to speak to concerns at the meeting. If it goes well, terrific. If it doesn't, we are not done. All that a negative decision would be doing would be saying no for Don Jones Park." Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 5, 2015 at 5:34 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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