Veterans Day Parade OKed in Lincoln, but not in prime location

For the first time in the city’s history, Lincoln is able to host a parade on Veterans Day.

It’s something vets say is long overdue, but not everyone is on board with the proposed location of Mahoney Park.

"If we could leave from the Capitol, go down to Veterans Memorial Garden. That’s a shorter route than Memorial Stadium,” Marine veteran Bruce Trautwein said Monday. “But at least it’s a place of significance. And I think that would only be reasonable."

City councilman Roy Christensen originally wanted the route to be in Havelock, but that would come with a price tag of $60,000.

City officials agreed moving the celebration to Mahoney Park for now is more taxpayer friendly.

"I think this is an opportunity to begin a parade,” Christensen said after Monday’s city council meeting. “Now I understand this is not what some people would consider optimal. It’s not everything I would want either. But this represents a compromise."

The parade is promised not to detract from the annual celebration at the Veterans Memorial Garden in Antelope Park..

The garden’s chair Ron Lechner said, while it would be ideal to have the parade and his celebration coincide, any progress is good progress.

"I’ve lived here for 17 years and there hasn’t been one,” Lechner said. “So therefore if we could get something started — you have to have some place to start."

Not everyone agrees.

Vietnam war vet Ed Schnabel marches from Memorial Stadium to the Memorial Gardens every November 11th.

He believes having the parade downtown will serve as a reminder of the sacrifice service men and women make.

"Just like when we came home from Vietnam, we didn’t have any welcome parade or anything,” Schnabel said. “I came home 44 years ago in October from southeast Asia. Nobody was there to welcome me. This is a slap in the face if they don’t do it on Veterans Day and do it some place where there’s actually going to be people."

The hope is to have the parade sponsored and scheduled for Veterans Day 2018.

The resolution does not limit the parade to Mahoney Park alone.

Christensen says it’s a good start, and if all goes well it could be moved elsewhere in the future.