Saturday, October 26, 2002 The L.B. Navy Memorial, where is it?   By Tom Hennessy Columnist Everyone seemed to think it was a good idea. The public was invited to help defray the Friends' expenses by buying $50 donor bricks inscribed with the names of loved ones. The heritage association also granted $50,000 to help Friends of the Navy with its expenses. The money was part of a mitigation award given the association by the Port of Long Beach when the Naval Station and shipyard were closed. Memorial Day 2000 became the target date to unveil the memorial, although some in the project thought that was a tad early. They were right. Memorial Day passed without anything happening. However, on Jan. 25, 2001, there was a groundbreaking, which would become a minor bone of contention later when the project further bogged down. "We are here to say we remember, to take pride in sharing," Mayor Beverly O'Neill said at the ceremony. An unveiling would take place in six months. Or so it was said. Today, more than two years after the first scheduled dedication came and went, and with buyers of bricks periodically calling me to ask what has become of the project, the Long Beach Navy Memorial remains a nonentity. Seemingly ready to be built, the would-be tribute to the Navy is bogged down in a dispute that even includes an accusation, largely unsupported, of embezzlement. Ready to go. "The contractor was selected a year ago, the sphere was ready to go into production, and the site was ready," says Terry Braunstein, the Long Beach sculptor hired to design the sphere. "At this point, the memorial ground to a halt, and only the parties involved with the financing of the project can tell you why." Hired by the Heritage Association, Braunstein finds herself on a tightrope between the two groups, but fiercely loyal to the project. "There is no reason that this memorial cannot now be built in a way that is special, distinctive and a real tribute to the Navy and their families in Long Beach," she says. What has gone wrong? The principals of the two organizations seem unable to agree even on that. "The status of the Navy Memorial is virtually the same as it was in 1998, when the city of Long Beach donated the site," says Friends of the Navy's Dennis Swan. Not so, says Renee Simon of the Heritage group: "The project (or her organization's part of it) is ready to be installed." Swan alleges the work began to run afoul when the Heritage Association delayed turning over the $50,000 it had pledged, and that Friends of the Navy did not get the money until last month, and then only when prodded by the mayor's office. During what Swan calls the "embarrassing" groundbreaking ceremony, he says the association, in a comment to the Press-Telegram, took credit for financing the entire project. "As a result," he says, "our donations dried up." He says there was an agreement "that when we came to the end of the project, I would toot the association's horn as a great organization." The association's allegedly taking full credit for the memorial ran counter to that agreement, he says. Simon says Simon could not disagree more. "I have no recollection of any NMHA representative speaking to the press at the time of the groundbreaking ceremony, nor do I know why Dennis refers to the event as 'embarrassing,'" she says. She says officials who attended thought the ceremony was "discreet and appropriate." On Swan's charge that the $50,000 grant was delayed, Simon notes, "As with any grant from a funding organization to a grantee, funds will not be forthcoming until the grantee meets certain agreed upon conditions ... NMHA required documentation that the project had city-approved plans and permits and a signed contract to have the work done. Dennis never provided that documentation." Says Swan, "The Friends of the Navy's responsibility was to establish a contractor escrow account to pay for the construction of the memorial, which would require payment from LBNMHA for the foundation of the armillary sphere and the compass rose." He also says that in the months in which the project was stalled, the Friends had to spend an unanticipated $11,000 for revised drawings to include the sphere and compass rose. Missing funds? Because of that, he says, the propeller was eliminated from the memorial along with a plaque honoring the 74 sailors killed during the Vietnam War aboard the USS Frank E. Evans, a destroyer home-ported in Long Beach. His group is about $9,000 short in its funding of the memorial, he says. Added to the flurry of accusations is Swan's claim of missing money. "We are presently investigating the apparent embezzlement of $26,000 of Friends of the Navy money," he says. Simon says the charge is ridiculous. "If you are saying there has been an embezzlement, you go to a district attorney. You don't throw words like that around. It's not my place or my organization's place to be responding to accusations that have no evidence." Swan says he has brought the matter to the attention of the mayor's office. A member of the mayor's staff confirms that it is under investigation. For all that, Simon says that from her standpoint, construction is ready to begin. "The total project ... has taken far longer to complete than any of us had anticipated, but it is now ready for installation. So far as I know, delays were perhaps the result of inexperience but in no way the result of any lack of integrity on the part of any participants." Braunstein, who designed the sphere, agrees that work on the memorial can begin. "The armillary sphere is essentially completed. The panels, which contain the history and photographs (of the Navy in Long Beach) have been finished for a year and a half. The globe in the interior of the sphere has been cast in bronze. The stainless steel rings have been fabricated, and are being assembled this week. ..." Swan says the Friends have sold 257 donor bricks, and the sale of another 241, at $50 each, would give his group the go-ahead to carry out its part of the project. Meanwhile, Braunstein adds, "Ever since the terrible tragedies of last September 11th, we have learned to appreciate the roles that heroes have played in the history of our country. It is also time to recognize and honor the Navy heroes that, for so many years, have made Long Beach so proud." It is, indeed. Tom Hennessy's viewpoint appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He can be reached at (562) 499-1270, or via e-mail at Scribe17@aol.com