Town, community discuss moving veterans memorial

MARSHVILLE, N.C. — Marshville town leaders said a veteran’s memorial must be moved because of structural issues beneath the site.

The town has already taken steps to address it by taking out cracked pavers and replacing a fence with yellow-police tape.

It has sparked concern among veterans that the town is disrespecting them and what the monument stands for.

A special town council meeting was held Wednesday night as the town debates the future of the veteran’s memorial.

“It goes away. I will not come back to this town because you have disgraced the men and women that gave their lives,” a community member said at the meeting.

Marshville town manager Frank Deese said anger erupted weeks ago when someone started the rumor that the town plans to get rid of the memorial to make way for a parking lot.

“The town wanted to move it to preserve it, so that we could fix the problem up under it,” Deese said.

The problem is that an eight-inch sewer pipe made of clay runs under the monument site.

Town Public Works officials said it was built the 1930s.

“That monument sinks, so that’s when they first came to me,” Deese said. “So I said we need to figure it out.”

“They continued with the misrepresentation and that makes people angry, saying, ‘Well, we served. Why are you trying to disrespect us this way?” said Deese.

Many of the concerned citizens at the meeting weren’t buying that.

“Not really,” said Bill Little, a U.S. Navy veteran. “The parking lot is already there. That’s what it will be used for when the memorial is moved.”

The town council voted to meet with the local veterans memorial committee within four weeks to decide who owns the memorial and to find a possible new location for it.

Little is skeptical.

“The biggest issue for me is that the memorial does not sit in storage,” Little said. “That it be put in a prominent place, as soon as possible, so that people can see it.”

Town leaders acknowledged it is a sensitive topic that needs to be handled with care.

“I think they need to do more communication with the veterans,” Little said. “Especially, before they make that decision to move it.”

If the town council and that committee aren’t able to come up with a resolution in four weeks, the town manager said the monument will be temporarily stored behind the police department.

An idea for a permanent location is the park where there is currently an area that could feature a monument.

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