After a virtual public meeting with roughly 60 Cape May citizens on July 30, a committee proposing a beach location for a World War II memorial said it was were back to the drawing board.
Architect John Boecker promised a “total reset of the design.” The public opposition to the location and the design presented at the virtual session was strong and widespread.
Anyone who thought a new design and a new chance for comment on it would temporarily ease the public discussion on the subject turned out to be wrong. The issue of location and design of the Jacob Jones Memorial took over much of the public comment at the Aug. 5 meeting of Cape May City Council.
One member of the public presented a petition opposing placement of the memorial anywhere in the dunes at Poverty Beach in East Cape May. The petition, she said, had 435 signatures from residents and visitors to the beach area. Then, a series of other speakers wanted council to ensure more public discussion of any proposal to put any memorial near Poverty Beach.
Mayor Zack Mullock explained more than once that the memorial was not a city proposal. He said the council has worked to ensure that any proposal for a memorial gets full public disclosure and open discussion. The council has a minimal role, Mullock said, until the memorial committee puts a formal proposal before the governing body for approval.
“If that happens,” Mullock said, “it will be here in this room with a public meeting and full opportunity for public discussion.”
What is at issue is the location and design of a memorial to the USS Jacob Jones, a naval destroyer sunk by German torpedoes on Feb. 28, 1942. The ship went down between Cape May and Delaware. One hundred and thirty officers and crew perished in the attack.
The committee proposing the memorial has stood fast on having the location within the city boundaries, in sight of the ocean where the ship went down. This “must have,” as one speaker called it, is what drove so many members of the public to the podium on Aug. 5.
What one of them called a “preemptive” effort to register their opposition ended up with 11 individuals speaking on the issue, consuming a full hour of public comment. No one spoke in favor of the location for the memorial.
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