Published: August 16, 2008 10:21 am            

Look what the accountant found

Three years ago, several people had the idea to build a monument in honor of all Boone County veterans, and to construct it in Lebanon’s Memorial Park.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Short version: The monument’s construction was politicized. It was also bent, folded, spindled, stapled and mutilated.

Back a while, veterans, friends, interested members of the public, some elected officials and others (i.e. me) gathered at the Lebanon American Legion Post to discuss (in my case, report) the veteran’s monument monument’s future.

A reprise: The memorial was first proposed in June 2005. At that time, the cost was estimated at about $147,500. (I’m rounding here.) Estimates being estimates, the figure was expected to fluctuate.

Several persons purchased bricks for the monument; the bricks were to be engraved to commemorate a veteran’s memory or with whatever inspirational slogan the buyer chose.

Enough money was collected, according to Roger Neal, who was then the Lebanon parks director, to begin construction of the monument.

Many people had contributed to the proposed memorial. The then-park board approved the monument and a location.

But Neal began excavating the site, and then-Mayor Jim Acton ordered him to cease, desist and not start up again.

One of Acton’s assertions for ordering the halt was that the park foundation did not have enough money to begin construction. Neal said the foundation had the $102,000 it considered the minimum necessary to begin construction. Additional funding would be raised to complete the monument.

Acton said no there was not enough money, and Further Review Was Going To Be Necessary.

Some weeks later, Acton, who was limping out of office after having said he would not seek a fifth term, fired Neal — and had him escorted from the park department office by police.

I asked Acton, after he fired Neal, why he fired Neal. Acton would not give me a substantive reason. Now, some people out there think I am Neal’s devoted publicity agent but when an elected official refuses to answer an uncomplicated question, I become suspicious.

And, when members of an appointed board decide they are not accountable to the public, I get miffed. On June 2, the Lebanon Park Board unilaterally decided to ban the veteran’s monument from Memorial Park — and then canceled its July meeting for “lack of agenda items.”

Really, why would the park board want to meet two days before the Fourth of July, when about 25,000 people would be here to watch the city’s Fourth of July parade — with several thousand of them sitting in Memorial Park?

But I opted for restraint, believing that grown-ups would appear to sift through the sandbox.

Those adults may still be sifting, or they are looking for a screen with finer mesh. While I’ve been reminded that patience is a virtue, I also know that sloth and pride are two of the original seven deadly sins.

Me, I’m just happy to report the results of a phone call I made Thursday.

Ron Lind, a local CPA, said he was going to examine the park foundation’s accounts.

Thursday morning, Lind told me the park foundation has $98,500 for construction costs, and $9,200 for bricks.

$98,500 plus $9,200 equals $107,700.

Or, just to twist-push the serrated blade a bit deeper, $3,700 more than Neal said was available for the veteran’s memorial.

Ain’t vindication sweet?

Back in June, park board members Debbie Lee and Jeff Dickerson both said they were “supportive” of a monument to the county’s veterans — so long as it was built anywhere but in Memorial Park. They voted against using the park for the memorial.

At that meeting, Park Board member Darren Warren, according to a story in The Lebanon Reporter, wondered, “what’s more important: Maintaining a monument or opening a pool?”

Warren also said he thought the debate about locating the veterans memorial in Memorial Park “has dragged on long enough.”

What’s “dragged on long enough” is the public’s patience with the city council and mayor.

There’s being petty; there’s being stubborn; there’s being stupid.

None of those are among the seven deadly sins.

Which is a good thing for the Lebanon Park Board.

Rod Rose is the assistant managing editor of The Lebanon Reporter.

        

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