Tuesday, Jan, 23, 2007 • Up to 50,000 expected to view traveling Vietnam Wall

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Jan, 23, 2007 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Despite predictions of up to 50,000 people expected when the traveling Vietnam Wall comes to the Susanville Ranch Park July 6-9, neighboring residents support the event.

“I did speak with every single person, except for two homes, on Meadow View (Drive),” Rev. Mike Cornelison said. “Personally, I walked to each house and knocked on the doors, and I had nobody say anything but positive about the event. And I was really surprised at how many of them consented to letting people park in front of their homes for this event.”

Cornelison, the Family Life Pastor of the Susanville Church of the Nazarene, who is spearheading the event put on by the Susanville Remembrance Committee, said the committee hopes to have no one park on the south side of Meadow View.

“We’re going to have signage up; we’re having security with golf carts that will be driving along that street specifically to keep people from parking and interfering with those homeowners as much as we can,” he said. “We’re going to minimize the impact to them. We’ll do everything we can to do that.”

The county public works department sent special-event notices to about 400 people on the streets surrounding the park, Pete Heimbigner, the county’s deputy director of facilities maintenance, told the board at its Tuesday, Jan. 9 meeting. The notices advised residents to contact county staff with any questions or concerns.

“We had no feedback from that,” Heimbigner said.

Park Manager Joel Rathje hand-delivered the board’s information packet on the event the day before the meeting and personally talked to about 80 percent of the neighbors on Meadow View. One neighbor had concerns about parking, Heimbigner said.

The permit for the event, which the board approved at the Jan. 9 meeting, allows 24-hour, low intensity lighting for the walkways and the wall during the four-day event. It temporarily suspends the prohibition on nighttime lighting for park events.

Heimbigner said the county usually charges a $500 deposit for events at Susanville Ranch. For the traveling Vietnam Wall, the committee paid a $1,500 deposit.

He said he expects some temporary damage to the turf from the volume of traffic and irrigation lines may be broken. Heimbigner talked to those who maintain the sports fields at the park to come up with the deposit amount, which, if not needed, will be returned.

The committee is allowing county-approved, non-profit vendors only to supply refreshments to people who may stay at the traveling wall for hours, he said, adding the committee doesn’t want anyone making a profit on the event.

Vendors must have a trailer like those used at the county fair.

“We don’t want to make this into a carnival,” Cornelison said. “This is not that kind of an event.”

All vendor profits will go to veterans groups in Susanville, the surrounding area and to the VA Hospital in Reno.

“Mr. Chairman, I’d be honored to move that we approve this permit,” said District 5 Supervisors Jack Hanson, who is a member of the Susanville Remembrance Committee. Hanson added the event “is very well thought out. It’s going to be extremely emotional and a wonderful occasion.”

Hanson also complemented Heimbigner for his work on the permit for the event.

The board unanimously approved the permit for educational public exhibition purposes on county property.

Addressing the issues of how law enforcement will prepare for the influx of out-of-town visitors, Cornelison said representatives of the Susanville Police Department and the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department have been invited to attend the next committee meeting on Friday, Feb. 23.

Sheriff Steve Warren said, “I think it’s a great thing, I’d love to see it.”

However, Warren did express some concern about the 40,000 – 50,000 people committee members have said they expect to view the wall over the four days of the event.

After a presentation at a recent Susanville Rotary Club meeting Warren corrected what he told Chapman, “I didn’t say I needed more people. I said I needed more money to buy people.”

Cornelison put on a similar event in Grass Valley in the 1990s that attracted 60,000 people. Warren said he contacted the sheriff of Nevada County, who said the Susanville event could easily attract 50,000.

“He said it was a great thing; it went smooth,” Warren said. “It was a different type of person coming than you would if you had the state fair, maybe.”

Warren said he’s concerned about the impact on roads, the city and the county.

“It’s not going to impact just Meadow View,” he said. “It’s going to impact from there all the way to (Highway) 139 and completely through the city of Susanville. If you actually think about taking twice our population over the course of four days 24-seven, that was my concern. And I was only kidding about the money. We’ll take care of it with or without it.”

Warren said he’s canceled all vacations for members of his department during the event except for one person who is leaving the country.

“We’ll have mutual aid from other agencies for nothing more than having a presence against that volume of people,” Warren said.

Cornelison said the event will be advertised in Reno and all of northern Nevada, Chico, Redding, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Heimbigner said all the veterans groups waived the fee to use Memorial Hall for the musical and dramatic presentation the committee plans during the event.