DIRECTORS’ MEETING MINUTES, THURSDAY 26 JUNE 2025
A LIVE MEETING HELD AT THE ARIZONA STATE VETERAN HOME

Directors/Steering Committee Members Participating: Directors Carol Culbertson, Chuck Manuel, Chris Gahan, Ed Henry and Pete Lumianski. Other attendees included Steering Committee Members Dave Leclair, Ken Kennedy, Jerry Benham, John Smith and Perch Base member Carl Miner. The meeting was held in the Arizona State Veteran Home’s Liberty Hall on June 26th, 2025 from 1015 to 1215. The principal focus of the meeting was a discussion of the monument design progress, and the Foundation’s role in the proceedings. Foundation Executive Director Pete Lumianski brought the meeting to order at 1020.

Treasury Report. Pete provided a current summary of the Foundation’s Treasury: Desert Financial Credit Union Savings Certificate – $65,413.86; Chase Savings – $6,776.73; Chase Checking – $9,639.98; Chase Brick – $7,184.24; Total – $89,014.81. Pete noted the short-term funding goal is for us to get to $100K in 2025. The Foundation’s outyear fundraising goal of $400K remains tentative, awaiting further refinements with the monument’s design and development. Pete reported that due to an untraceable charge on our Foundation debit card with Chase, we had been issued a new card. He also reported that the Glendale Arts Council had donated $1000.00 for the second year in a row, and that he was awaiting the check. Finally, he noted our 4% Savings Certificate with Desert Financial would expire in July, and his plan was to renew it for six more months.
Cold War Monument Sitrep. Pete noted the pace of monument design and construction planning activities over the past month had accelerated, and he described three important meetings which took place since the last Board meeting in May.
 USS Minneapolis-St. Paul, SSN-708 Memorial Project, 6-12-25 – In a virtual meeting organized by Board member Ed Henry, we met with two of the leading persons involved in planning and building the 708 memorial project in Little Falls, MN, about 100 miles NW of Minneapolis. Included in the meeting were five of us from the Foundation, along with 702 Project Leader John Catt and sub-contractor Mike Davieau from MBJ. Purpose of the meeting was to hear about the 708’s project operations and glean any lessons-learned information from the MinnieSP effort to date. The meeting was successful and considerable information was shared with us as well as a promise from them to provide any relevant documents which might be of use in our project, see the summary posted below.
 702 Parts Visit at PPMR, 6-18-25 – As part of the process of costing out the monument build, Project leader John Catt organized a meeting of two prospective structural engineering sub-contractors for the purpose of looking over the 702 parts at Papago Park Military Reservation and developing an estimate for their repair and reconstruction. Both companies were very interested and enthusiastic about participating in the project, and a great deal of information was passed back and forth, with the bottom line that the work was both desirable and feasible. Discussions included methods of restoring, welding, strengthening and moving the parts, see the summary posted below.
 Monument Interpretive Signage Update, 6-23-25 – Interpretive Signage Specialist Lisa Ranzenberger led a virtual meeting to provide an update and proposed revisions to the monument’s signage and messaging concepts. Her revisions were partly in response to suggestions made by the Content Advisory Group in January, 2025. Lisa provided an update on her overarching signage framework as well as her new line-up of Cold War and submarine topics. Her revised efforts concentrated on relating world events and circumstances during the Cold War with various submarine operations and history. Lisa requested that a CAG meeting be convened in late July for the purpose of reviewing and commenting on her current interpretive signage concepts and plans. Pete agreed to begin organizing another CAG meeting in a virtual format for sometime after 20 July. See Lisa’s introductory summary posted below.
 Overall Outlook/Status at This Point. Pete summarized where we are at the moment: We’re approaching the 90 Design Review in late July/early August; Ground-Breaking is looking like Spring of 2026; Additional funding needs are still to be determined; The interpretive signage is making progress and includes CAG deliberations; There is a need for a status meeting with the City. Among the meeting topics are the use of Foundation funds; future fund-raising needs; sculptures atop the sail; dedication and recognition boards; interpretive signage approval process; use of the maintenance building west wall; and construction ceremony and media events.

Other Submarine Restoration Efforts. Pete reported making contact with the USS Cincinnati, SSN 693 Memorial Group and discovering they are doing many of the same things we’re doing in terms of planning, designing and building their memorial. One of their leaders, Bob Viney, VP of the Submarine Cincinnati Memorial Association, offered to set up a virtual meeting with us to discuss/explore any areas of mutual interest and to provide any documents which might be of use to us. Pete is continuing his efforts to obtain construction documents from the USS Lapon, SSN 661 sail restoration. Chuck, Dave and Carol had no further info on their sail searches (the Wilson, the Sturgis and the Indianapolis). Pete opined that the most promising groups to contact and learn from are probably the Minneapolis-St.Paul, the Indianapolis and the Cincinnati, and that if the research efforts on the other subs appear to be dead-ends, to simply discontinue the searches.

News Notes.

 Parks and Recreation Board (PRB) Meeting. Pete announced he had been invited by Parks Deputy Director Todd Shackelford to deliver some remarks at the PRB this evening (!) He indicated the main message would be saying thanks to the City.
 Brick Program. Chris reported there have been 63 brick purchases to date, and that he’d like to get a more solid commitment from the City on how best to carry out our promise to incorporate the bricks into the monument design, and also how best and how long to continue our efforts to sell them.
 Newsletter. Pete read the NL input he had received from Ardurra’s Project/Practice Director John Catt. Pete said he’d rewrite his recent NL draft and incorporate John’s info. Board member Henry suggested we do a review and update on our website to incorporate some of our latest information, perhaps by including copies of our newsletter. Pete reported that our monthly minutes are posted on the website, but that a review of the website is a good idea.
 Events. Carol reported we had been invited to the “Salute to Service” event at ASU to be held in November. Pete recommended we not participate in any fund-raising/awareness events until we find out what funding needs and purposes emerge in the next few months. Carol also reported the Arizona Historical Society had called and wanted to return some of their items from their 702 collection. Carol provided the information for Pete to follow-up. Pete asked Carol to please keep working on getting an introductory meeting with the Director of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services.

Pete adjourned the meeting at 1215. Our next Directors’ meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 24 July 2025 at the AZ Veteran Home.

Submitted By: Pete Lumianski, Director
Approved By: Carol Culbertson, Chairperson