Cabot senator to present bill for Gold Star memorial behind State Capitol steps

Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, said he plans to present a bill in committee Thursday that would place a granite memorial on State Capitol grounds to honor the “Gold Star” families who lost loved ones in active duty military service.

The Republican senator told Talk Business & Politics preliminary plans call for locating the Gold Star Families Memorial Plaza between the parking lot and staircases behind the State Capitol. Estimates for the cost of the memorial are more than $500,000, he said.

“We have a lot of support for this,” said Williams, whose Senate Bill 244 will be reviewed by the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. The Cabot senator is also chair of the Senate panel.

According to documents provided by the office of Secretary of State Mark Martin, the Little Rock chapter of the Marine Corps League and the Arkansas Run for The Fallen submitted a preliminary application request for the site of the Gold Star monument to a subcommittee of the state Capitol Arts and Ground Commission on Thursday (Jan. 27).

Design and schematics submitted to the subcommittee show the monument would be similar to other Gold Star markers across the U.S. dedicated to families that have lost a loved one in service to the country through the nation’s Armed Forces. The key feature of the monument is a black marble or granite wall with a cutout of a saluting soldier with a plaque nearby explaining the memorial.

Although the potential site for the Gold Star memorial has been recommended by the subcommittee, there are still several steps ahead for the monument to get full approval from the Commission, said Chris Powell, spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office.

“A site has been approved by the subcommittee, should the monument be approved at a later time by the full commission and should authorizing legislation be passed,” Powell said, in an email response to Talk Business. “A public meeting has not yet been scheduled, but will not likely take place until after the legislative session.”

Williams said he has the entire support of the 35 members in the Senate and from a large contingent in the House. Rep. Trevor Drown, R-Dover, a former enlisted officer in the U.S. Army’s 20th Special Forces Group, is the primary House sponsor of the SB 244.

According to the Hershel Wood Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, 39 Gold Star monuments have been dedicated across the U.S. with 39 more in progress. If approved, Arkansas would be the 33rd state to add a Gold Star monument on public grounds.

“We still need to raise the money for the (monument), so we are probably looking to get this approved after the session,” said Williams, a U.S. Army veteran.

There has been no such legislative support for the proposed application and site for a statue of the occult creature Baphomet, which was also assigned a potential location by the subcommittee last week. Powell reiterated that the actual monument for the satanic symbol has not been approved, and that there are additional steps needed before the project can move forward, including a recommendation by the full Commission and legislative approval.

“By law, regardless of what the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission decides, all monuments must receive legislative approval before they are placed on the grounds,” Powell said. “A public meeting for the satanic statue has not yet been scheduled, but will not likely take place until after the legislative session.”

Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves, whose group has applied to place the 8-foot Baphomet statue on the northeast corner of the State Capitol grounds, said he has been unable to find a lawmaker to sponsor enabling legislation.

The Satanic Temple, a loosely based group of several satanic chapter dens across the U.S., originally filed its application in August with the state subcommittee in response to the signing of a bill by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the 2015 legislative session that would place a Ten Commandments monument on the opposite corner of the Capitol grounds.

That legislation was sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, and several co-sponsors from the legislature who patterned the enabling bill after similar measures in Oklahoma and other states that propose to pay for the monument with private funds.

According to the state subcommittee reviewing the monument sites, all sponsors of memorials approved for the State Capitol grounds would be required to pay 10% of the cost of construction and installation into a fund that will be used to maintain them.