Updated: May 22, 2008 12:22 AM
By Chris Duffy
Construction at the site of the old Younkers Department Store building has created two years of uncertainty for a historical downtown Green Bay park. Now it's being relocated.
Admiral Flatley Park was located along the Fox River at Washington and Main streets, at the base of the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge. The park was wiped out by a downtown development project.
Now it will be moved six blocks south, near Washington and Crooks streets.
The park honors one of Green Bay's most beloved veterans. Flatley was a World War II hero.
"He was a highly decorated veteran. He took chances," Laveral Pieper of the United Patriotic Society said.
Thirty-two years ago, his hometown of Green Bay set his memory in stone, dedicating a park at one of downtown's most-traveled intersections.
Two years ago the park was surrendered for the sake of downtown progress.
"And we tried to save it but we couldn't get enough people to come to do it," Pieper said.
It left fellow veterans wondering if there would ever again be an Admiral Flatley Park. The city council approved a new site Tuesday night.
It's still along the east shore of the Fox River, just one-half mile south of the old site, right behind the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.
"He was certainly deserving of the honors that had been given to him, and it was important to keep those honors in place," Alder Amy Kocha said.
The only concern some veterans have is whether the new location is permanent or temporary.
"If this is something that they permanently want to approve, they're going to stay there, then it's all right, but if they're going to move it again, I don't know," veteran Charles Brand said.
Veterans and friends of James Flatley hope this Friday's Memorial weekend ceremony will be the first of many held at Green Bay's newest park.
Downloaded from wbay.com on June 16, 2008.