Chaplain Schmitt Memorial_Reponse to W. Pregler
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MEMORANDUM
June 15, 2004
TO:
The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM:
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Chaplin Schmitt Memorial
The City has received the attached June 11, 2004, letter from Walter Preg.ler with
concerns about the accessibility of the Chaplain Schmitt Memorial.
The new leaseholder for this property has agreed to try to improve the accessibility.
I respectfully request time to work with the new leaseholder on this issue.
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Michael C. Van Milligen -.......
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Attachment
cc: Walter Pregler, 2966 Shiras Avenue, Dubuque, IA 52001-8355
Dubuque Yacht Basin, 1630 East 16th Street, Dubuque, IA 52001
Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manager
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MEMORANDUM
June 14, 2004
TO:
FROM:
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager r\ ~\ \ ~
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City ManagerlJ"Y
SUBJECT: Chaplin Schmitt Memorial
Introduction
The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to the letter written by Walter Pregler
regarding Chaplin Schmitt Memorial.
Discussion
Attached is the letter from Walter Pregler regarding the inaccessibility of the Chaplin
Schmitt Memorial. This memorial is located adjacent to the Yacht Basin and currently
has limited access to the memorial via the Yacht Basin. This restricted access was an
outfall of a previously negotiated lease with the former owner Don Shanley and is
detailed in the attached memo from Planning Services Manager Laura Carstens.
Recently the Yacht Basin lease has been assigned to American Marine, which plans to
redevelop the Dubuque Yacht Basin lease area. On April 12, 2004, city staff including
Assistant Planner Guy Hemenway, Associate Kyle Kritz and myself met with Bruce
Lunde representing American Marine to discuss short-term and long-term
improvements to the property. As part of our discussion, access to Chaplin Schmitt
Memorial was discussed. In a preliminary site plan Mr. Lunde indicated the desire to
create new access around the Yacht Basin and his intent to continue to work with the
city and the Navy League to remove or reposition the fence.
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MEMORANDUM
June 14, 2004
TO:
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
FROM:
Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manage~
SUBJECT: Naval Memorial - Schmitt Island
The City Council has received a letter regarding the future disposition of the Naval
Memorial on Schmitt Island. This memo provides the background information you
requested.
The Naval Memorial is located within the boundary of a 1987 lease between the City of
Dubuque and the Dubuque Yacht Basin as shown on the attached exhibit of the lease
boundaries. The fence that endoses the Naval Memorial follows the lease boundary.
In the past, City staff discussed improved public access to the memorial with the former
leaseholder, Dubuque Yacht Basin, Inc., as improvements were proposed to other
areas of the lease. Representatives of the Navy League expressed interest in remova)
or reorientation of the fence in the past, but the former leaseholder dedined.
The City recently assigned the lease from the former leaseholder to American Marine,
which plans to redevelop the Dubuque Yacht Basin lease area. City staff met with
representatives of American Marine this spring to discuss their development plans.
(Please see the attached Planning Services letter of April 15, 2004 to the developer's
engineering firm.)
Planning Services staff believes that the Navy League is still amenable to removing or
repositioning the fence to guarantee public access to the memorial, and that American
Marine will cooperate in these efforts.
Attachments
Planrring Services Department
City Hall
50 West13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4864
(563) 589-4210 office
(563) 58'1-4221 fax
(563) 690-6678 TDD
pIanrúng@cityofdubuque.org
www.cityofdubuque.org
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April 15, 2004
Mike Jansen
IIW Engineers and Surveyors
4155 Pennsylvania Ave
DubuquelA 52002
SUBJECT:
Dubuque Yacht Basin Redevelopment
Dear Mr. Jansen:
I want to thank you, Bruce lunde, Steve Conlon and Bob Trilk for meeting with
representatives of the City regarding the proposed redevelopment of the Dubuque
Yacht Basin facility. The City looks forward to working with you to facilitate the
redevelopment of the Yacht Basin facility.
I have itemized some information below that should help facilitate this process.
1. I am actively working with Bob Schiesl of the City of Dubuque Engineering
Department regarding the request to remove fences around the Yacht Basin
facility. Bob will identify those fences that can be removed by the developer. I
will get this information to you as soon as I receive it.
2. I am currently trying to contact the Navy League of Dubuque regarding removal
or reorientation of the fence that endoses the Naval Memorial.
Representatives of the Navy League expressed interest in removing the fence
in the past but the former leaseholder declined. I feel that the Navy League
would be amenable to removing or repositioning the fence to guarantee public
access to the memorial. I will provide you a contact with the Navy League as
soon as possible. The City leisure Services Department has been notified
about the deteriorated flag at the memorial and has scheduled a replacement.
3. I have included the PUD guidelines and a rezoning application for the Yacht
Basin facility. You will note that the general and specific standards outlined in
the PUD Ordinance refer to general goals but do not quantify bulk standards.
This enables the developer to custom design the facility and establish
standards for such requirements as setbacks, parking and signage that meet
their needs.
4. I have spoken with City Forester Steve Pregler regarding removal of trees along
the Peosta Channel directly west of Bissell Harbor. It appears as though the
Service
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.. Letter to Mike Jansen
Dubuque Yacht Basin Development
April 14, 2004
Page 2
trees lie outside of the leased area. Steve has inspected the trees and once
we have a better understanding of your project we will work with you to address
the thinning of the trees.
5. Please provide documentation regarding the market value of the barlrestaurant
building prior to alterations (demolition) and the valuation of the construction
project. Please provide a Floodplain Development Permit for the barlrestaurant
project. We will keep this information on file as per FEMA and DNR
regulations.
6. Please submit 2 copies of the building plans for the barlrestaurant remodel to
Rich Russell at the Building Services Department prior to requesting a building
permit. Review time generally takes 2-3 weeks.
7. At your request, City Staff will review the lease language to clarify elements of
the lease such as duration and conditions that may impact your project. This
may be an opportunity for both parties to create a single, simple,
comprehensive lease for the entire Yacht Basin facility.
I have included a copy of the PUD Regulations, minor site plan requirements, major
site plan requirements, rezoning (PUD) application, and FEMA flood plain ordinance
sections pertinent to the project.
I am aware that the developer has an aggressive project schedule, with a target of
finishing the restaurant project by the end of June 2004. In an effort to expedite the
project I will process the information you provide as soon as possible.
If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact me at 589-4210. I
look forward to working with you.
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Guy Hemenway /
Assistant Planner
Enclosures
cc;
Rich Russell, Building Services Manager
Kyle L Kritz, Associate Planner
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel
Bob Schiesl, Civil Engineer
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Walter A. Pregler
2966 Shiras Ave.
Dubuque, la. 52001-8355
563-583-5855
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Hon. Mayor & City Council
City Hall
Dubuque, Iowa
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.June 11, 2004
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Dear Sirs & Mesdames:
While riding through our wonderful community, I decided to drive past the DRA and
the Yacht Basin.
To my great surprise, I found one of our precious edifices in great disorder, and
closed from public visitation. The Chaplin Schmitt Memorial.
I can still recall the ceremony of dedication of the memorial. It was a nice sunny
afternoon, Gordon Kilgore doing the master of ceremonies chores, members of the
City Council, myself included, as well as several Pearl Harbor survivors. All of us
were swelled with pride to honor the memory of such a distinguished cleric.
In my mind, memories of Father A. A.Hoffman, the most decorated Chaplin of World
War II, and Fr, Bill Menster, the South Pole Padre danced in my head. What a
contribution these clergymen made to the war effort. It gave the power of courage
to mélny of us.
Now that beautiful memorial lies, unapproachable, because of the expansion of the
Yacht Basin.
With the ease of developing the Grand Harbor with funds from various origins,
perhaps, just perhaps you could plan to relocate the memorial to a more suitable
place in Dubuque. The arboretum would be a suggestion. It would dignify the legacy
of these fine men, as well as the legacy of Adm. Sheehy, an area priest who attained
the highest rank of any clergyman to date.
I am sure many of the local veterans organizations would be in agreement.
Many area residents are being denied access not ol1ly to the site itself, but to the
knowledge that many from Dubuque, from all walks of life, rose to the occasion,
when duty called.
Sincerely;
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From: Frannie <reader@pcpartner.net>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 14:45:49 +0800
Subject: Heroism
Heroism Recalled: Iowa Chaplain Was First to Die at Pearl
Harbor
In the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fr. Aloysius H. Schmitt was among the fIrst to die. He gave
his life to save others.
June 06, 2001 / Father Aloysius H. Schmitt, a 32-year-old Navy chaplain from Dubuque,
Iowa, had just finished celebrating the 6:15 a.m. Sunday Mass on Dec. 7; 1941, on board
the USS Oklahoma, a battleship in port at Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese struck.
The first torpedo hit the massive ship forward on the port side. A second hit the center,
ToITents of water poured into the gaping holes caused by the explosions.
As the attack raged, Father Schmitt went to the ship's sick bay to minister to the wounded
and dying. But within minutes it became clear that the Oklahoma itself was mofta11y
stricken and the call was given to abandon ship.
The book "Trapped at Pearl Harbor, Escape from the Battleship Oklahoma," by Stephen
Bower Young, describes what happened next to the young chaplain.
"Trapped 'at his battle station on the second deck below when the ship went over, Father
Schmitt helped several sailors escape through a porthole to safety," it says. "When he in
turn tried to squeeze through, he was unable to do so, quite possibly because of the
breviary in his pocket.
"Then seeing that other sailors had entered the rapidly flooding compartment for a means
of escape, Chaplain Schmitt insisted that he be pushed back inside to assist them. True to
his commitments as a priest and a naval officer, he urged them on, helping them to safety
out of the porthole before water engulfed him there. .,
Jack Henkels, a Catholic park ranger at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor,
researched Father Schmitt's sto1)' during the 1990s. He wrote an article for the fall 1997
issue of the Arizona Memorial newsletter.
Henkels cited the account of two eyewimesses in his sto1)'. "He told the men trying to pull
him out (to) let him back in," Henkels wrote. "They protested, saying that he would never
get out alive, but he insisted, 'Please let go of me, and may God bless you all. ,"
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Another account by Pearl Harbor chaplain Jesuit Father Francis X. O'Connor, published in
the Oct. 5, 1944, issue of The Witness, newspapef of the Diocese of Dubuque, related the
story as told to him by the shipman who had tried to save Father Schmitt.
It said, "The sailor did not want to let him go but finally yielded to his demands. The
sailor hoped he was going in to clear his pocket but reports that Father seemed to think
that there were others in the compartment by now."
There were. After the priest helped them escape, the 35,000-ton ship gave a lurch, and less
than 20 minutes after the first torpedo hit, it rolled over and settled into the mud in the
harbor.
Two-thirds of the crew survived the attack; 448 men died.
Father Schmitt was the first U.S. Catholic chaplain to be killed in World War II. The next
day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, would have been the sixth anniversary of his
ordination.
On Oct. 23, 1942, the Navy posthumously honored the chaplain with a Navy and Marine
Corps Medal for" distinguished heroism and sublime devotion to his fellow man. "
"His magnanimous courage and self sacrifice were in keeping with the highest traditions
of the United States Naval Service," the citation said. "He gallantly gave up his life for
his country."
In his book, Young questioned the appropriateness of the relatively minor honor: "One
can only wonder why the Navy did not see fit to grant Lt. Schmitt a much higher award,
for he gave his life so that others might live, the highest sacrifice an individual can make."
Father Schmitt is most likely buried at Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii, in a grave with
about 400 other unidentified bodies recovered from the Oklahoma. His name is engraved
there in the Courts of the Missing.
He also is memorialized on a plaque at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitors Center at Pearl
Harbor along with the only other chaplain who died in the Japanese attack, Presbyterian
Rev. Thomas L. Kirkpatrick of the USS Arizona.
A chapel was named after him at his ahna mater, Loras College in Dubuque. Three years
after his death, the Navy presented the chapel with a crucifix made from wood from the
Oklahoma's teak deck, with the body of Christ cast from metal from the ship.
His chalice, bent in the attack, also was recovered from the ship and presented to the
college.
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