The continuing initiative to find a home for a veteran’s cemetery in Orange County evoked strong emotions from members of the Los Alamitos City Council Monday, as they unanimously approved a resolution to support the latest proposal.
“This should have been done years ago,” said Mayor Pro-tem Shelley Hasselbrink. “It is sad, and it is frankly, embarrassing that we don’t have a Veterans Cemetery here,” she said.
Before the vote on a resolution of support in the council’s Consent Calendar, Hasselbrink pleaded with other members of the Council to support the measure.
“I would plead and actually beg my fellow council members to support this 1,000 percent,” she said. “We’re a military town and it’s the least we could do to support our veterans,” said Hasselbrink.
“I think it’s really important we have a final resting place for those who have given so much and sacrificed so much for our country,” she said. Currently, she added, the closest veteran cemetery is located in Riverside.
Mayor Mark Chirco agreed, saying “I think it’s really important we have a final resting place for those who have given so much and sacrificed so much for our country.”
“As someone who has to go to Riverside to see my dad,” said council member Tanya Doby, “I support it.”
“The Marines are for this as well,” said council member Ron Bates, a former Marine, and “The Army supports it to,” said council member Jordan Nefulda, an Army veteran.
Earlier in the meeting, Vietnam veteran Ronald Bengochea said “I can’t thank you enough for this resolution.
“I’m speaking for thousands of veterans in Orange County,” he said, “and it’s an honor for me to be here tonight representing all those out there that are not speaking.”
“We [veterans] need a home,” said Bengochea. “It’s not for guys like me, because when it is my time, when the Lord calls me and my bones are in the ground, I’m where I need to be,” he said.
The veteran cemetery, he said, “is for the loved ones in the family” who can visit the remains of their loved ones close to home. “It just means so much for so many,” he said.
Officials agreed that the proposed veteran’s cemetery has become a “political football,” but there now seems to be support building for the latest proposed site on property near Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim Hills.
Los Al becomes one of more than 25 Orange County cities that have endorsed the new proposal after years of consternation in Irvine.
Hasselbrink said the city’s endorsement of the proposal is critical because there are governmental changes in the original legislation and other changes that need to be made at the state level before any cemetery can be built on the governmentally owned 130 acres just east of the 241 Toll Road.
As the proposal stands now, the other half of the 260-acre property will be used for badly needed space for civilian burials.
The council voted 5-0 to support the veteran’s cemetery proposal.
In other action, the Los Al Council;
• Heard the first reading and held a public hearing of a proposed ordinance change that will rectify wording that now requires some aging homeowners to build a covered parking garage even if they simply wanted to add a bedroom downstairs. The ordinance will modify parking requirements for single family dwellings, said Director of Development Ron Noda.
• Heard Hasselbrink remind residents that during the Pacific Airshow Oct 1, 2, and 3, “we’ll have our own personal airshow” as many of the renown aircraft, such as the Blue Angels, will be taking off and landing at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos to perform in the Huntington Beach airshow. “It’s a big deal,” she said.
• Approved Hasselbrink’s suggestion to rename the road leading into Los Alamitos High School as
“Griffins Way,” but directed city manager to get a letter of acknowledgement from the LAUSD board or Supt. Andrew Pulver.
• Heard Recreation Director Emeline Noda say they had more than 600 participants for their annual 5k and 10k races, which she said was fantastic given the pandemic delays and this being the first race not on the military base. “We believe we can double that next year,” she said.