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Sorry, Irvine, you guys blew it.
This press release from Nick Berardino of the VALOR veterans group marched across our transom a few hours ago. Irvine’s inability to agree on a site for an OC Veterans’ Cemetery, whoever you want to blame that inability on, has gone on way too long now, nearly a decade. Hundreds of Orange County veterans who really wanted to be buried in a cemetery here, close to their families, have died without that possibility. One of them was my own Dad, a Navy vet, who passed away recently. Well, Anaheim wants this cemetery and we’re ready to go. State politicians, Sharon Quirk-Silva, Josh Newman, Tom Umberg, Dave Min, Anaheim Council, let’s make this happen!
The Orange Juice Blog will be getting a tour of the site from Nick next week – come back for a lot of pictures and more info – Vern
Here’s Nick…
OC Veterans Unite for New Cemetery Site
VALOR leads coalition of Veterans, elected officials, and community leaders
for a state Veterans Cemetery off the 241 toll road.
Orange County, CA — After years of studies, bureaucratic roadblocks, and broken promises from elected officials, Veterans in Orange County are abandoning efforts to build a cemetery at the former El Toro military base.
“Veterans may have survived a war, but were used as political artillery shells in a dirty political war they could never win.” – Nick Berardino, President of VALOR
“The pathetic reality is that a Veterans state cemetery will not be built as promised to Veterans at the Great Park [former El Toro military base],” said Nick Berardino, a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran and President of Veterans Alliance of Orange County (VALOR). “We served our country and had a simple ask to be buried at a dedicated Veterans cemetery in Orange County. We worked our butts off through all the council meetings, legislation, and community meetings to get it built where it was promised to us. Now, we have no choice, but to abandon an Irvine location and work with County leaders to get the cemetery built off the 241 toll road.”
At the heart of VALOR’s final decision to move to a new location is the continued opposition by Larry Agran, who insists on building the cemetery in a section of the Great Park that is cost prohibitive compared to a more appropriate and much more affordable site elsewhere in the park according a recent CalVet study. The CalVet study found that the Agran backed hanger site would cost an estimated $110 million while the VALOR backed golf course site would cost about $74 million.
“This demand by Agran to force Irvine residents into a prolonged fight for a cemetery site that would cost taxpayers double when we could start building today for about half the cost at a more feasible site in another section of the park is an insult to Veterans and Irvine taxpayers,” said Bobby McDonald, small business advocate and VALOR board member.
Veterans aren’t waiting around. VALOR is already meeting with County Supervisors and state officials to conduct a new study through CalVet for the 241 toll road site. “We don’t have time for another decade of petty political fights and broken promises to our Veterans,” said Bill Cook, U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran and VALOR board member.
County elected officials have shown an initial willingness to assist the state in building the cemetery where the 241 toll road meets the 91 freeway. The 283 acre site in the Anaheim Hills Mountain Park was conveyed to the Orange County Cemetery District by the Board of Supervisors in 2018. “This just seems like the right thing to do for our Veterans,” said former Irvine mayor and Orange County Supervisor Donald P. Wagner. “They sacrificed everything to protect our nation. We should be able to come together, figure this out, and build a regional cemetery in Orange County to honor their service.”
VALOR OC is a non-profit organization of Veterans dedicated to promoting the common good and general welfare of the community by educating the public about Veterans issues, advocating for Veterans rights, and engaging in activities to promote the interests of Veterans.
Death march for the dead.
The State’s evaluation of the two potential Veteran’s Cemetery sites in Irvine was published. The Agran Memorial Park plan for the ARDA site will likely fail to qualify as a Veteran’s Cemetery by State and Federal standards.
I hope the Irvine City Council (June 22) will dedicate the golf course site to the State and that the ARDA site will continue to be planned out as a Memorial Park with trails, museum, historic buildings, berm and forest. The best Veteran’s Cemetery site is on the former golf course site.
If a lawsuit is threatened again, put the choice of sites in front of Irvine’s voters with a special election and include a proposed City spending plan for each site. I’m hoping that this threat of lawsuit over the ARDA site will be withdrawn as it is revealed to be harmful to the City and its people.
The Anaheim cemetery site has never been offered to the State and faces years of qualifying and huge site prep costs. The golf course site will be the Southern California State Veteran’s Cemetery. I’m hoping these small vets groups will reverse their foolishness and support the most practicable and imminent veteran’s cemetery site, the so-called golf course site.
How do you propose getting around all of those ballot measures that Agran got the public to approve through lies and misdirections, having his own partisan newsletter (run, of course, by a supporter, not him!), and siphoning down the balance of his credibility with older voters?
If the Vets groups, who truly wanted it there, don’t think it can happen, then neither do I. Irvine gets nothing. It will end up in the city of Anaheim, though not owned by the Council.
*As Spike Lee said: “Just do the right thing!” We support the Agran Plan no matter if it cost 10 times as much. The Cheap Folks in this county are not attractive. Here we are in the worst drought in California history and folks still don’t want Desalination Plants because their OX doesn’t get to Gore someone elses Ox. The same goes for our Veterans Cemetery! We guess we could put it in Miles Square Park in Fountain Valley right next to the Reclaimed Water and Sewage Facility as well, but heck how about putting it the parking lot of the old Kona Lanes in Costa Mesa. “We could tear down that Mall” and put our resident old timer dead there too! Sickening to say the least. What about all those Collector Coins they tried to sell for Strawberry Fields? Guess that didn’t pencil out so well. Sometimes, we just don’t need the Tom Reilly’s of the world, who want “their name on everything”. Taking credit for everything and spending years of worthless study to get a few free lunches and rub elbows with the local partisan politicians. Brutal Citizens! The Vet Cemetery belongs at El Toro and all the Chinese immigrants in the world should not be able to change that! Not all the aberrant self serving local Vet gentry either. Not, the Public Employee Union of Orange County either. Keep going Larry….the good guys support you and always will. We don’t care if they come up with a 10 plot cemetery….but for goodness put it in the right spot. Although, at this point the Disneyland Parking is looking better all the time.