Maplewood architect, Ralph Bicknese, Tuesday night showed the Maplewood City Council at a work session meeting his final plan for the new veterans memorial, to be in front of Maplewood City Hall.
The 20 x 40 foot plaza will consist of two reflecting pools (with fish and lily pads), limestone benches and a flagpole. The pools will be on each side of the walkway into the front door. The plaza will paved with 12-inch square granite pavers in various shades of grey.
Bicknese said he’s ready to go out to bid with the project. The estimated cost is $140,000.
And SAVE THE POST OFFICE! It is part of the city that needs to be kept for it’s walkability score, history & convenience. Maybe put the memorial in front of it!
Way too much cost that keeps rising & not a good location. Unless you are standing there, it won’t be noticed by passing people or vehicles. The new fire department is going to make city hall look terrible, which means soon city hall will need updating & that means it will be torn down when they do that. This is wasteful. I support the Veteran’s but not with this memorial. The streets really are in terrible condition, they need to be addressed.
roads. roads. roads. roads. roads. roads. roads. roads.
Somebody who has been in Maplewood a while help me out — Or Doug can you check the archives? and correct me if I am wrong — didn’t the city, just within the last 5 – 10 years re-do the front of city hall with some ‘special’ landscaping from some touted designer or agricultural thing? I’m thinking it was tied in with a home show or an ‘award winning’ something or other… And wasn’t it all put exactly where they are proposing this now? And didnt we pay for that?
How many Maplewood military gave their lives in the service of our country? Shouldn’t they get a memorial that costs just as much as the Ryan Hummert memorial?
I don’t know that anyone is arguing that veterans don’t deserve to be acknowledged. But maybe there are more fiscally responsible way to acknowledge their service. I would love to see the Community Development Director create an event to acknowledge our veterans, or the City to partner with veterans organizations and address some of the unmet needs of veterans in our community. $140k could go a long way to address some of the barriers veterans need to overcome when they return home.
I agree completely, Adelina.
EXCELLENT points — please run for office in Maplewood!!!!!
What’s wrong with the Mid County Vet Memorial at The Heights ? It is open to all. The Height is part of the Parks Dept of both Maplewoow and Richmond Heights ! I think the money could be used on the worst streets in all of the County found in Maplewood. You should stop by and take a look. I know the Mid County group is open and looking for more area participation You can buy a lasting momorial brick with your loved one’s name, dates of service and branch, that will become a part for all to see and remember. Yes, a Memorial is nice, but to have two within a mile, is a little bit too much. I vote for better streets in our city so we can visit the VM at The Heights.
Please consider a run for office in Maplewood!
$140k………wow……I agree with Lauren, let’s fast track the road, curb and sidewalk replacement efforts before we spend $140k on a memorial……..
I bet Doug could travel around Maplewood while doing his thing, and easily take pics of 30 streets that need replaced. That could help create an outcry to fix our roads. I have lived in Maplewood for 18 years and love it here, but I know for a fact the roads have been a deterrent for some young professionals to move to our nabe. I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but what % of the city official’s (city manager, mayor and councilmen) streets have been restored?
Aren’t many road projects on hold because of coordinating with long overdue sewer improvements with MSD? I think you will find that’s the reason why certain roads haven’t been upgraded in the last year, not because of a lack of funds. Once I realized that road improvements meant that City Hall would cut down each and every tree in the streetscape I became much less excited about the prospect of new roads. As a pedestrian in a walkable community, I prefer the trees, though I still don’t understand why they are mutually exclusive, since other communities manage to have both tree-lined streets and nicer roads.
Here’s a little summary if you haven’t been following or would just like a little refresher. Lets go back almost 2.5 years ago…
January 2014 – Maplewood architectural firm of Hellmuth and Bicknesewas selected.
https://40southnews.com/ryan-hummert-sculpture-veterans-memorial-new-fire-house-before-maplewood-council/
August 2014 – Four designs were presented to the city council. Memorial designs were first shown publicly and location was to be in front of city hall. The planned budget is set at $75,000 of the city budget.
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-officials-weigh-in-on-veterans-memorial/
August 2015 – Memorial returns to the public eye. Three revised options were presented to the council at the meeting and were estimated to cost less than the original. The original design featured a larger plaza and more landscaping as well as plans to replace the ponds with new ones but Bicknese estimated the cost could approach $140 thousand. The established budget during this time remains $75,000.
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-to-bid-two-veterans-memorials/
July 2016 – Last night the architect comes back with a plan very similar to the original and estimates the cost to be $140,000.
If you disagree with this plan moving forward, join me – a veteran – in saying “No” to the council. Please sign the petition…
https://www.change.org/p/barry-greenberg-request-maplewood-city-council-to-stop-the-bidding-process-for-the-veteran-s-memorial?recruiter=543361574&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink
I can appreciate that people don’t want to give the impression they don’t support Veterans. There is a lot of unspoken social pressure. But the same pressure you are feeling that is making you hesitant to sign the petition will be magnified many times over on a council member who is asked to vote publicly on this. If this goes beyond the bidding process and a vote is taken by the council it will pass. No government employee is going to publicly oppose support of Veterans, even at the small city level. Help end this before it goes to a vote.
Please consider running for office in Maplewood! It is time for new and improved leadership at all levels 🙂
Veterans should be treated with respect and honor. However. there seems to be a trend on all these comments, that our elected officials are doing whatever they want and not caring about what the citizens of Maplewood think. I just commented on the most recent article about Maplewood’s newest fast food restaurant Raising Canes. No one I know wanted another fast food establishment there. No one. It’s really too bad that no one elected in Maplewood cares about what its citizens think 🙁
I agree with what you said and I definitely support our veterans. Not supporting the spending for another memorial is a separate issue regardless of its cause. You can still support veterans and oppose the liberal and reckless spending of our current City Staff and our current city council.
I just want a new street. Stop wasting tax payers money!
Im sorry, but this is absolutely insane. We just built a memorial that was incredibly expensive and now there is another 140K to be spent on memorials. Where is the oversight on something like this? There are so many other areas to work on in this community. I would bet 1,000 dollars that this did not go through committee. Again, I am at an utter lost that this is happening……again.
If it makes city hall look a little less crappy, I say go for it. Of course, it’s kind of pointless making that area nice as it’s become a fast food Mecca.
Our devotion to fast food is awful. The actual citizens of Maplewood do not want this much junk food, but what can be done?
I understand, the idea of improving the look in front of Maplewood city hall, but I am not even sure this proposal would be all that different than what is currently there. I think it is hard to see unless you are standing right in front of city hall, but it’s really nice, with a sort of pond landscaping, not sure how to describe it, but I think it’s really nice. With the Ryan Hummert memorial just finished I am also confused as to why there is a push for this since there is a really nice, new Veteran’s Memorial at the Heights. I am really starting to think less and less about the folks running Maplewood. I’d run for office myself, but cannot, so I hope others do.