The Common Council met 06/18/2025. They spent over an hour receiving public comments about and then discussing the resolution to rename Appleton Memorial Park to Veterans Memorial Park and to create a plan to relocate existing memorials from around the city to the park.
There were some concerns raised as to whether the city was putting enough thought and intention into the proposal, but the resolution ended up being approved by a vote on 13-1 with Alderperson Martyn Smith (District 4) casting the one dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The resolution initially called for the park to be renamed “Veteran’s Memorial Park.” The Parks and Recreation Committee amended the resolution to instead rename it “Veterans Memorial Park.” During the Common Council meeting, Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5), the main author of the resolution, confirmed that the amended version without the apostrophe was the spelling that the veterans who had lobbied for the change preferred.
Four veterans spoke before the Council in favor of passing the resolution. They expressed dissatisfaction with the limitations and lack of amenities as the existing Veterans Park which is located next to Memorial Bridge, does not have good parking, and lacks bathroom facilities. They wanted to have a park that honored veterans, could comfortably host events, and that veterans could easily visit. One also expressed dissatisfaction with the way current war memorials in the city are displayed, pointing to the way Soldier’s Square is taken up by parking spaces and the World War I memorial is visible but inaccessible in the middle of Memorial Drive.
Alderperson Smith was the one alderperson who voted against the resolution. He agreed that the current Veterans Park was too small, lacked bathroom facilities, and didn’t have enough parking for events. He was worried, however, that merely renaming Memorial Park to “Veterans Memorial Park” was not an intentional and thought-out way to create a space that honored veterans. Before moving forward with a name change, he wanted the city to hire a designer to create an intentional memorial space for veterans, stating, “I’m nervous that what we’re going down a path on is another case of naming a place before we have a design and a plan, and I’d like us to go and get a plan.” He was worried that renaming the park “will make us feel like we’re done with this project, and that […] we can just kind of move on from here. And I don’t believe that’s what we should do, and I mean that with all hope that we can do something to honor our veterans as you all are asking for.”
Mayor Woodford noted that there was already a veterans memorial area within Memorial Park near the Scheig Center. Parks and Recreation Director Dean Gazza went into more detail about that veterans memorial area within the park, saying, “[W]hen the Scheig Center was remodeled, that included a plan, and that plan specifically engaged an architect to create a veterans memorial, a veterans memorial that would not only house current memorials but future memorials. It’s a little bit hard to plan for a future memorial without knowing what the memorial is. Is it a statue? Is it a plaque? Is it going to be a wall? What is it going to be? So that’s why all the green space exists. That’s why there’s a circular walkway to add smaller memorials, and there’s green spaces off the left and to the right of the path if there’s smaller memorials to be added. The planning is done, and so what I guess I’m trying to say is we’re talking about ‘Let’s plan for a veterans memorial because it doesn’t exist today.’ It exists. It’s done. This Council’s invested in it. You already made the decision to put it there.”
Even though Memorial Park already has a memorial area set up, the concern brought up by multiple alderpersons was that things hadn’t been thought out and that renaming the park would end up being a way to pay lip service to veterans rather than truly supporting and honoring them.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) was concerned about the part of the resolution that called for creating a plan to relocate some existing monuments within the city to the newly renamed Veterans Memorial Park and to create a plan for adding additional, as yet uncreated, monuments for recent conflicts. He along with some constituent has been fighting for years to make Soldier Square in downtown Appleton a more reverent and appropriately honoring spot, and he was worried that by renaming Memorial Park Veterans Memorial Park that would take the pressure off the city to fix the problems with Soldier Square.
There was some discussion about the cost associated with updating signage. This was not an overarching concern to the alderpersons, but, as Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) pointed out, it was their responsibility as Council members to know what the cost was. Precise numbers were not clearly stated during the meeting, but it sounded like it was only a couple thousand dollars. Director Gazza told the Council that the company that had installed the sign outside of Memorial Park on Ballard would be willing to reduce the cost of updating the sign by $600 because the name change was honoring veterans. The money would come out of the Parks and Recreation Department’s existing budget which has money allocated for general updates and maintenance.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) proposed an amendment to the resolution that, instead of renaming the entire park, called for “A portion of Appleton Memorial Park identified the Memorial Park/Scheig Master Plan as event space expansion shall henceforth be named and dedicated as Veterans Acres at Appleton Memorial Park.” She did this not because she was strongly wedded to the idea or opposed to renaming the entire park but “I’m trying to do all the things that we’ve talked about here today and make it clear that we have a—that we will have a very important portion of what we all refer to as Memorial Park for the veterans in this city.”
Alderperson Van Zeeland strongly opposed the amendment saying, “So, the veterans asked us to rename the park Veterans Memorial Park instead of just Appleton Memorial Park. What we’re offering in this amendment is to rename the place next to the current veterans memorial something else instead, and I just find that incredibly condescending. I think if you saw the reactions of the folks in the room when you stated that, I don’t know how anyone could support that.”
The amendment failed by a vote of 5-9 with Alderpersons Vered Meltzer (District 2), Smith, Nate Wolff (District 12), Hartzheim, and Croatt casting the 5 votes in favor of it.
The Council went back to discussing the unamended resolution. Alderperson Patti Heffernan (District 8 ) stated, “My concern is that if this doesn’t pass, that it will be taken as a as a ‘no’, and I—and what I’m not hearing from anyone here tonight is that it’s not a no, it’s not like this, or that there’s more work that needs to be done.”
Alderperson Van Zeeland followed up on that thought by saying, “I’ve been around long enough on this Council to know that we’ve had communities ask us for things, we’ve told—some people have told them, you know what? We want to debate it more. We want more. And it hurt people, and it filled this room full of people, and you can’t undo that. And I just want everyone to consider that, you know, in a perfect world, nobody’s feelings are hurt by a yes or no vote, but that’s not the world we operate in.”
Alderperson Wolff indicated that he would vote in favor of the resolution, but “I am concerned that we’re going to rename this park, maybe build a statue, and that’s all we’re going to do, and then pat ourselves on the back. I will support this, but I do expect pressure from the same people in the room who came here today to do more past that. I expect it. This is not enough. There are still people starving on our streets who served this nation. This is not enough. I expect more.”
The Council ended up voting 13-1 to approve the resolution to rename Memorial Park “Veterans Memorial Park” with Alderperson Smith casting the one dissenting vote.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1289903&GUID=6031510B-D854-4AA8-913C-7977C7FC15B9
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