Peace group plans demonstration after memorial rejected
Mountain View Voices for Peace is inviting the public to bring flowers to Civic Center Plaza on Sunday to commemorate the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.At noon, the group will read the names of each of the more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers who have died in the war. The group had originally asked permission to hang 2,300 dog tags from trees in the plaza for a period of several weeks, but the city council rejected the proposed memorial, saying that it did not conform to existing policy.
Mountain View’s Karen Meredith, mother of the late Lt. Ken Ballard and an outspoken peace activist, said this event will have more of an anti-war message than originally planned, but is still a memorial.
“Our community should acknowledge the human cost of the war and at the same time honor those sacrifices being made,” Meredith said.
State Assembly member Sally Lieber named Meredith “Woman of the Year” last week, calling her “a powerful moral presence and [an] important voice for peace and understanding.”
Congressional reps get first look at Hangar One report
The debate over Hangar One has reached the highest levels of the Navy, according to the official in charge of the Moffett Field cleanup. Rick Weissenborn told a citizens group last week that a long-awaited report continues to be delayed for review, this time by Assistant Secretary of the Navy B.J. Penn.“There’s a lot of concern because of the magnitude of some of the proposals in there,” said Weissenborn.
Weissenborn said the Navy was scheduled to give a briefing on March 16 to the staffs of U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, who sent letters in 2003 saying they wanted to see the hangar preserved. Weissenborn also said the Navy has to send the report to the state Office of Historic Preservation — “just a formality” — and that it should be available to the public within a month.
The Navy will give the public 30 days to respond to the report, which is expected to call for either the demolition of the hanger or the replacement of its contaminated siding. The Navy will also schedule an open house and public meeting to take comments.
SpaceWorld to unveil visitor center plans
With the uncertainty over Hangar One, officials with the nonprofit SpaceWorld Foundation are moving ahead with plans to build a scaled-back version of the world class museum they had planned for the hangar.SpaceWorld and NASA were scheduled to unveil their plans for the visitor center outside the Moffett Field main gate Thursday night at 7:30.
“Our primary goal is to interest young people and inspire them to be the next generation of scientists and engineers,” said Steve Hing, NASA’s liasion to the project.
Hing said the group still hopes to expand the project in the future, either into the much larger Hangar One or another facility.
— Jon Wiener
