CAP Board approves next step in USS Ward gun removal review
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Summary
The Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board voted to advance a removal request for the USS Ward gun, finding that staffpreliminary analysis and public comment support moving the application to a commemorative-artwork review committee and a further public comment period.
The Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board on April 3 voted to accept staff's preliminary finding that the USS Ward gun removal application meets condition C of the board's commemorative-works rules and to convene a commemorative-artwork review committee to continue the review process.
Board staff fellow Tina Chabuzu summarized the application, staff analysis and public comment at the meeting. She told the board that the gun, installed on the Capitol grounds in 1958 and owned by the U.S. Navy, had been the subject of a removal request from Randall Dietrich, executive director of the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum, seeking relocation to Camp Ripley. Chabuzu said staff had previously determined that the application met condition C in Minnesota Rules 2400.2703, subpart 6'C (that the artwork has faulty construction or requires maintenance such that the Department of Administration is unable to properly care for or store it), and that the first public-comment period produced 17 submissions (16 unique entries counted).
"Based on the staff's preliminary findings and public comments, staff recommends that the Board accept that the criteria from Minnesota Rules 2400 to 2703, Subpart 6, item C, have been met, and vote for the application to proceed to the next step in the Commemorative Work Removal Review process," Chabuzu said during her presentation.
After opening and closing a public hearing with no additional speakers, the board approved a resolution authorizing staff to convene a commemorative-artwork review committee, and to open a 30-day public comment period and hold one public hearing on behalf of that committee. The motion was approved by roll call.
What happens next: staff will publish the comment period on behalf of the committee, convene the review committee and then return to the board with the committee's recommendation and any additional materials. If the committee recommends removal, the board would consider that final action at a later public meeting.
Why it matters: the USS Ward gun is a historic artifact on state Capitol grounds with federal ownership and a formal loan agreement; moving it would require coordination among the museum applicant, the Department of Administration and the board. Advancing the application begins a formal design- and disposition-review process that includes additional public input.
Meeting provenance: Tina Chabuzu presented the staff analysis and the board took the vote during the commemorative-works agenda item. The board's action authorizes the next steps but does not itself remove the memorial.
