Last year the City of Kenai allocated funding to make improvements to the Leif Hansen Memorial Park, including a metal monument designed as a veteran’s memorial which is now receiving criticism for a cross on it.
The monument includes a soldier kneeling before a cross, to which a couple of Kenai City Council Members have raised questions on the issue of separation of church and state since the memorial is on City land, according to Kenai Mayor Pat Porter.
Mayor Porter: “The possibility of moving it to a different location was discussed. However, it’s not come before council and a majority of the council has not even talked about it. It’s kind of surfaced now and in the general public, so this is where we’re at where the general public is beginning to find out about it. But even if the memorial was moved it wouldn’t happen until sometime during the summer.”
Mayor Porter also said that there has been no complaints from the public about the cross on the monument.