On Tuesday, September 5, 2017, the Neosho City Council voted to transfer ownership of a portion of Big Spring Park to the Save Our Heritage Foundation.
The Save Our Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) entity which was formed to preserve the structural integrity or physical appearance of sites or properties of historical, architectural, archaeological or cultural significance.
The portion of the real property transferred also contains the Cross which was challenged by a national atheist foundation as being unconstitutionally located upon public land.
The Neosho City Council, after a full legal review was conducted, determined that the costs of sustaining the defense of a lawsuit based on the placement of the Cross did not outweigh the potential success of defending such a suit.
The current law on placement of stand-alone Crosses on public land has consistently resulted in court ordered removals of said Crosses.
Such a case was recently evidenced in Pensacola, Florida where U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson wrote in his ruling, “I am aware that there is a lot of support in Pensacola to keep the cross as is, and I understand and respect that point of view”, continuing however, Judge Vinson concluded “But, the law is the law.”
The Neosho City Council choose to take guidance which was found in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Salazar v. Buono, which supported the transfer of public land upon which a Cross was located in the Mojave Desert to a private individual and therefore resulting in it no longer being located upon public land.
By taking such action, the United States Department of Interior avoided moving the Cross which memorialized WWI veterans. The Neosho City Council hearing the overwhelming desires of our citizenry to not relocate the Big Spring Park Cross determined that the best course of action to prevent such a relocation was to act as it has. By doing so, the actions of the Council acknowledge the current standing of the law and satisfies the desires of the people.
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