COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Franklin County Commissioners voted Tuesday to move ahead with plans to tear down the Veteran’s Memorial on the west bank of the Scioto River downtown despite objections from veterans groups who say the issue should be put before voters.
The commissioners approved a measure to spend nearly a half million dollars to hire a company to oversee the demolition of the 60-year-old building, which will be replaced with the Ohio Veterans Memorial and Museum.
The commissioners voted to hire Gandee and Associates, Inc., for $587,400 to clean up and demolish the building. The cost of the project was estimated at $2.5 million when it was unveiled last year.
The Vets’ Memorial facelift is part of a larger project to remake the stretch of riverfront near COSI. It had included plans for a satellite Columbus Zoo facility, stores and restaurants.
A coalition of veterans’ groups addressed the commissioners before the vote, arguing that the Veterans Memorial is a historical and economic asset which is being turned over, at no charge, to a private development company with no clear plan for how the transfer will benefit the county or taxpayers, according to a position paper distributed by the group known as Taxpayers and Veterans for Saving Veterans Memorial.
According to the group, the west section of the Veterans Memorial property marked for the reconstruction (left) is worth approximately $3.5 million dollars, according to the county Auditor’s 2012 valuation report.
According to the paper, endorsed by representatives of the American Legion Post 532, Whitehall Memorial VFW Post 8794, Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and the Navy/Marine Corps League and Association for Naval Aviation, tax dollars may be spent on the operation and maintenance of the museum and amphitheater with no business plan to show how the facility will pay for itself. The group warns it could become a liability for taxpayers.
The future of the proposed redevelopment of the riverfront was put in jeopardy by the defeat at the polls of a levy request by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium that would have funded the satellite zoo, prompting zoo officials to abandon the plan, the position paper claims.