As part of the plan to spruce up downtown Morgan Hill, city officials are considering moving the First Street veterans memorial—a plan the chief designer and installer of the monument calls “upsetting.”
City staff said the potential move to a currently undetermined site is not firmly established, but it is likely when planned street and sidewalk improvements at the intersection come to fruition, according to City Engineer Karl Bjarke. He stressed that if it is moved, careful consideration will be given to local veterans’ desires.
Still, longtime Morgan Hill resident Eddie Bowers, who served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, said the monument already sits at the perfect location—which he selected more than 20 years ago—in the median of Monterey Road at First Street.
Bowers led the fundraising effort to construct and install the monument, which features a flag pole and two stone walls with plaques attached listing the names of Morgan Hill veterans who died in combat. The “front wall” was installed in 1991, and the second wall was installed about four years later, Bowers said.
Bowers put his “heart and soul” into the monument. When he decided, after considerable contemplation, to run with the idea in the early 1990s he knew he was going to dedicate the rest of his life to the site and the memory of the fallen veterans.
Each Memorial Day and Veterans Day since 1991, Bowers has led a memorial ceremony at the site in honor of the veterans. This past Memorial Day’s ceremony, on May 26, brought one of the largest crowds in the history of the local tradition, according to several veterans who have attended for many years.
“These men and women (who died in service) deserve a lot more than that. They have to be the center point of our town. We wouldn’t have our towns if it wasn’t for people like this,” Bowers said. “It’s not right.”
The city is currently working closely with Bowers to find a new location for the monument, but so far none has been identified.
The city’s concern is the current site is a potential traffic hazard for pedestrians, though neither Bowers nor city staff recall any incidents at that intersection in the past. Also, the biannual ceremonies at the site have drawn growing crowds that in recent years require the police to block traffic between Main Avenue and Second Street during the 45-minute events.
Moving the First Street memorial site would be part of the city’s downtown “placemaking strategy” to invest nearly $25 million in infrastructure, landscaping and recreation improvements. These expenses include about $5 million to improve Monterey Road and downtown side streets with pedestrian safety improvements, utility undergrounding, sidewalk upgrades and other construction. The projects will be funded mostly by leftover Redevelopment bond proceeds.
Bjarke said the city plans to be sensitive to the concerns of the veterans.
“We’re trying to find a place that meets the veterans’ needs and fits into the overall downtown scheme,” Bjarke said. “It’s possible, too, that it won’t move at all. We just want to pay the utmost respect to the veterans. If by some chance it stayed put, my concern is to make that pedestrian crossing as safe as possible.”
Bjarke said the cost to move the veterans memorial would come out of the budgets for the Monterey Road and side street improvements.
The city’s first choice for a new location for the veterans monument was the City Hall campus on Peak Avenue, in the grassy area between city buildings.
But Bowers shot down that proposal because it’s not as visible as the First Street site or other possible locations downtown. He suggested the small park in the median of West Third Street, but the city’s overall downtown plan includes an overhaul of that street as well.
Bowers doesn’t remember how much money he raised to build and install the monument. The effort was, in part, Bowers’ way of encouraging veterans to talk about their experiences and take pride in their service. Needless to say, Bowers is attached to the First Street site.
“When I move it, I have to have the same feeling I had when I put it there,” he said.
He took the potential effect on the pedestrian crossing into consideration, as he designed the walls low enough to provide visibility to motorists.
Bjarke added an ideal new location would offer “plenty of room for people to gather and pay their respects,” and perhaps even include room for seating.
Over the next three months, city staff plan to fully identify the scope of the downtown projects including the veterans memorial, while continuing to work with Bowers and other veterans, Bjarke said.
