Moreover, the city, business groups and the general public should stand ready to help the society pay for reproducing the evocative scenes at another downtown site. The looming potential for trouble was reported in Wednesday’s Columbian by business writer Jonathan Nelson.

The BNSF Railway’s main east-west rail line is on the south side of the wall, which is at Fourth and Columbia streets near the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay. The wall supports the railroad berm and the murals are on the north face of the wall.

BNSF is doing a major project in that area, as well as farther north in the Vancouver rail yards to 39th Street. But it is the still-vague plan for work just west of Columbia Street that is the sword hanging over Remembrance Wall.

“To accommodate the city’s waterfront development, it appears the wall could be impacted,” Gus Melonas, BNSF spokesman in Seattle, told us Wednesday. Near Columbia Street, where the murals are in place, the tracks likely will move about five feet north, he said. And two blocks farther west, at Esther Street, a northward shift of the berm of as much as 20 feet is possible he said. But, Melonas stressed, the railroad is mindful of the murals and is reviewing the matter as it “attempts to have minimal impact” on the wall.

When the wartime scenes were painted on the wall in 2005, says Jerry Rolling of the Clark County Mural Society, “there was no reason to suppose (the wall) was going to be moved.” Now, he said, he just wants to know for sure and get the details in order to decide a way to ensure the murals are saved and displayed.

Remembrance Wall is one of seven downtown murals created so far under auspices of the Clark County Mural Society. All are pictured, with their addresses, at www.ccmurals.org along with an independent mural at northeast 109th Avenue and Fourth Plain Road called, “Historic Orchards.”

This ambitious project by the Clark County Mural Society deserves the support of the community. If you’ve ever driven through downtown Toppenish, with its 70 murals, you know what Rolling has in mind and how much of an attraction murals can be. (Toppenish is at the north end of the Satus Pass highway, U.S. 97, from the Columbia River past Goldendale, on the way to Yakima.)

Rolling has been frustrated by lack of specific information about the need to remove or bury Remembrance Wall. Melonas’ statements Wednesday helped clear the air, but more specifics and a timeline would help the society get on with its project.

Rolling figures some restoration or reproduction effort will be required — and be expensive. Donations by check are welcome, he said, to Clark County Mural Society, 4606 Grant Place, Vancouver  WA 98663, with a notation on the check that it is for “Remembrance Wall Replacement.”