City and post officials are working on how to cut objectionable glare, while the post tries to win approval of a memorial.
By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published May 16, 2003
The dispute over the windows installed at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Hyde Park will carry over to next month while city and post officials try to work out a solution.
A public hearing for Post 4321 on Morrison Avenue was scheduled to go before the Architectural Review Commission on May 7 but was postponed until June.
Terry "Mac" McMillen, quartermaster at the VFW, said his group was prepared to speak, but the ARC asked him to reschedule the meeting to allow more time to reach a compromise.
In the meantime, the post will finish installing screens on the windows to reduce the objectionable glare. They are also working on plans to erect a memorial on the property, which the ARC must approve.
The post wants to put a flagpole and seven granite stones in a semicircle on the front lawn. Six of the stones will have the names of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine. The seventh stone, which will be in the center and slightly taller, will say, "For those who served."
After the window issue is resolved, McMillen intends to present the commission with an artist's rendering of the memorial. He showed the staff a preliminary drawing, which already raised some concerns.
"I didn't get a warm reception," he said, without elaborating.
The post was cited by the city in March after Navy reservists installed $10,000 worth of donated new windows on the old building near the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.
The city said the windows violated the ARC rules because they were tinted and had metal frames. McMillen said the windows aren't tinted but have a glaze that creates reflections.
To reduce the glare, the VFW has bought metal screens for eight of the 10 windows. McMillen, a Vietnam veteran, said he won't find out whether the commission approves them until the June meeting.
City officials are optimistic.
"We're trying to work out a resolution," said Del Acosta, the city's administrator for the commission. "I'm waiting for them to give me some direction."
The commission meeting is scheduled for June 4 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 315 E Kennedy Blvd.
