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Voters oust 2 council members who voted to remove memorial

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November 4th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Voters have ousted two Knoxville council members who voted to remove a veterans memorial from a city park. Carolyn Formanek won roughly 15.3 percent of Tuesday’s votes and April Verwers won about 14.3 percent. Their opponents won more than 20 percent each. The Des Moines Register reports that Formanek and Verwers voted with the council majority on Monday to move the wooden silhouette of a soldier kneeling before a cross out of Young’s Park and onto private property. A new bronze memorial would be erected instead.

The plan was offered as a way to stave off any lawsuit by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which wants the cross removed. But the council action prompted calls from supporters of the silhouette to oust incumbents Formanek and Verwers.