by:  Diane Benjamin

You may have heard reports that a temporary employee thought the plates on the monuments would look better spray painted gold.  This employee supposedly did it without authorization.  Is this really what happened?

When this first came to light, only a couple had been painted.  Now it appears ALL of them have been painted gold instead of restored.  Evidently, the City was looking into getting them restored – did the City actually hire a company who thought this is restoration?  They appear to be professionally painted, not done by a summer employee.  Does anybody believe a summer employee went out and purchased gold paint and decided to do the deed on his own?

Meanwhile, other memorials in the park are being allowed to decay.  The Vietnam Memorial is now difficult to read and parts that used to work no longer do.

Bloomington just spent another $1.2 million on 2 additional parks.  They can’t maintain the ones they have.  Will citizens be complaining about the conditions of their new parks in a year or two?  Matching money grants doesn’t mean there will be a maintenance budget!