PORT ANGELES — Ongoing drug use and vandalism by a handful of people who frequent Veterans Memorial Park has led to community members raising funds to fence off the Liberty Bell replica.

Karen Rogers, former mayor and city council member, said Monday she launched the fundraising effort after seeing discussion in the community about the park. Rogers, who is familiar with how the city works and its budget constraints, felt the need to act.

“The park is suffering from vandalism and that park needs to be treated with dignity and respect,” Rogers said of the park at 217 S. Lincoln St.

“There comes a point where we need to be responsible and we need to teach people the behavior we want in our communities.”

The goal is to raise $17,000 to help the city pay for ornamental fencing that would surround the structure housing the Liberty Bell replica. There would be a gate in front that would allow the Clallam County Veterans Association access to the bell for its bell-ringing ceremony the last Friday of every month.

City Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat said the city has not made a decision on whether to put up fencing, but said it will be discussed at the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission meeting at 6 p.m. April 18 at the City Council Chambers, 321 E. Fifth St.

If the parks commission makes a recommendation it would likely go before the City Council during one of its meetings in May.

Delikat said the way people are treating the park frustrates not only the city’s maintenance staff but also citizens who want to spend time at the park.

“People feel like they can’t enter the park,” Delikat said. “They don’t feel safe. They don’t feel it’s being respected.”

Delikat said that if the city does decide to put up an Echelon decorative fence, it would cost between $15,000 and $18,000.

Lawmakers grilled Navy leaders about a plan to send an aircraft carrier into retirement decades early when military leaders around the world are calling for more, not less, naval support.

Members of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee pressed service leaders on Tuesday to explain why they should get behind cutting short the service life of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.

The plan is detailed in the 2020 budget request, which was released earlier this month. The money the service had planned to spend on refueling the carrier's nuclear reactor core would instead be used on new cutting-edge technology, including unmanned ships.

But combatant commanders in the Middle East and Europe who have called for a carrier presence already aren't seeing those requests met, said Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat and retired Navy surface-warfare officer.

"We're not meeting that forward-deployed presence, so how can you justify further reducing the carrier presence?" she asked.

Retiring the Truman early is "not a warfighting decision," said Vice Adm. William Merz, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems. "It was more of an investment decision."

The service needs to free up funds to pay for "the Navy of the future," James Geurts, assistant Navy secretary for research development and acquisition, told lawmakers. The Navy must be ready to compete against a near-peer enemy, he said.

"[That] led to some tough choices," Geurts said. "One of those is to retire that ship early in favor for looking at other technologies, other larger cost-imposing strategies."