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Jul. 27, 2007
Veterans museum talk erupts in controversy
By CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT
A decision on whether or not to lease a new building located at the Pahrump Veterans Memorial, in the Chief Tecopa Cemetery, to the Support Your Soldiers in Need (SSI) Foundation was tabled Tuesday by the Pahrump Town Board. The issue sparked a long line for public comment and a significant amount of discussion from the audience. Part of the issue was based on a contention by SSI, which was founded and run by Pete and Jenny Liakopoulos, that their organization raised the funds to turn what was a breezeway into an enclosed building. According to Liakopoulos, the foundation received contributions from various businesses around town for the specific purpose of turning it into a museum. Jose Telles, of the Marine Corps League, one of the organizations that helped to build the memorial, expressed his opposition to the Liakopouloses. Telles told the board that a memorial was not the same thing as a museum, and asked the members to clarify whether the building was included when the previous board approved the use of the land for the memorial back in 2005. He further asked the board for copies of SSI's documentation, including when the nonprofit organization was incorporated, its tax returns and a list of contributors. Telles said he had no problem if the SSI is a valid organization, but he did not think a museum was appropriate for a memorial. "What I have a problem with is them putting a museum in there and taking the soul out of the Pahrump Memorial," Telles said. Harley Kulkin, long-time resident of Pahrump, said he felt the lease was part of a "scheme" because it was unnecessary for the town to issue one just to have a veterans' museum. "It sounds like somebody wants to gain control of something for whatever reasons they have," Kulkin said. "If somebody wants to donate their time and create something nice for veterans, they don't need to control the land by a lease." Another issue was who should run the museum if and when it comes into being. Some citizens claimed it should be run by veterans or a committee of veteran organization leaders, while others staunchly proclaimed that you did not have to be a veteran to know what should go into a veterans' museum. Jenny Liakopoulos stressed that she had never once asked the board for money and that citizens of the community and businesses had donated money just for a museum. Her lawyer, Lillian S. Donohue, said the SSI had filed incorporation papers with the state and that the organization does in fact have an employer identification number with the IRS. Peter Liakopoulos asked the board to approve the lease and said that he thought an agreement had been reached at a meeting among himself, Telles and other veterans the previous week. He asked the board to approve the lease because he said it was his organization that had raised the money to construct the building. Board Member Dan Sprouse said that the board should be clear on what the previous board approved, and pointed out that if SSI had indeed funded the improvements on the buildings, then the board should support the lease. However, Sprouse also pointed out that in the end, everyone who had addressed the board had the same goal -- to honor veterans. "We're here for the same purpose and that purpose is to honor the veterans, and I wholeheartedly support that," Sprouse, a vet himself, said. "But I think we're getting some personality issues and some issues that are getting involved here that is causing us to lose focus on what we're all here for." As such, Sprouse made a motion for both groups to attempt to come to an agreement and come back to the board with the issue at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Or, as Chairman Laurayne Murray put it, the motion "that the veterans not have a war in Pahrump" passed unanimously. |
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