Town fast-tracks request for veterans memorial funding
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Part of the veterans memorial being constructed at the Veterans Home in Bennington has been completed. The town Select Board has approved a measure to place a request for funds to complete the memorial on the town meeting ballot. Patrick McArdle / Rutland Herald |
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By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: October 19, 2009
BENNINGTON – The Select Board agreed recently to place a one-time request for $50,000 on the March ballot for a veterans memorial that's being constructed at the Vermont Veterans Home.
John Miner, president of the Vermont chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, asked the Select Board at its meeting on Oct. 12 to place the requests on the ballot and waive the requirement that petitions with the signature of 500 registered voters be submitted.
The memorial, several sections of which are already in place at the veterans home, will take the place of the honor roll displayed in most Vermont towns which lists the names of soldiers who died while serving in a time of war.
Miner said the list in Bennington would begin with soldiers who served during World War I and continue to the present day.
"Three years ago or a little more, we came to you with a … presentation about what we wanted to do for our veterans here in Bennington, North Bennington and Old Bennington. We had many great visions at that time of what we could do and very little money," he said.
Some aspects of the memorial that were originally proposed including a fountain and an extended walkway have been eliminated because of concerns from the veterans home's Board of Directors, Miner said.
But local veterans have still moved forward enthusiastically, raising $30,000 to pay for the first phase and most of the second phase, which includes several stone memorials, flag poles and a concrete slab. According to Miner, the project is operating at a deficit of about $4,000, but fundraising efforts are still ongoing.
More than 150 bricks have been sold to donors who had them inscribed with personal messages. Those bricks are scheduled to be installed this week, but Miner said brick sales will continue.
"It seems like as soon as we stopped selling the bricks, we got a ton of requests," Miner said.
The bricks to be installed will be a mixture of plain and inscribed bricks and Miner said the next set of inscribed bricks will simply be swapped in to places where there are plain bricks.
A dedication for the second phase of the memorial is planned for Nov. 11.
The third and final phase is being planned with an $80,000 federal grant being administered through the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. Miner said the memorial's proponents wanted to use the federal money to buy granite with a goal of having inscriptions done this winter.
Miner said organizers hope to have the third phase built in the winter and finished in time for Veterans Day 2010.
Rep. Joseph Krawczyk Jr., R-Bennington, who is also a Select Board member and combat veteran, moved that the appropriation go on the ballot without petitions.
"I really believe this is going to be a community project. It's going to be a part of our community. It already gets a lot of visitors just by the flag poles being along the drive there," he said.
Two Select Board members, Chris Oldham and Matt Maroney, voted against the request, but both made it clear that their concern was only the method by which the appropriation was being put on the ballot.
However Select Board Chairwoman Lodie Colvin said she thought it was valid to waive the requirement for ballots because it was a "one-time ask for a veterans memorial that I believe we should support, but it's not really up to me, it'll be up to the voters."
Miner told the Select Board that if the voters approved the $50,000 appropriation, but not all of it was needed to complete the veterans memorial, the balance would be returned to the town.
Forms to order inscribed bricks are available at the Bank of Bennington.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
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