It’s time to put the “veterans” in Veterans Park.
That’s the message City Manager Chris Whittaker brought to a small, but appreciative, group last Tuesday at the VFW Hall as preliminary plans for a plaza which would be a tribute to the town’s current and past military men and women.
“We’ve got a park named for veterans but there’s nothing in it about veterans,” Whittaker said. Tuesday’s meeting was the first step toward a remedy to that situation.
Two very preliminary drawings were presented, one fairly simple, one more elaborate.
CIRCLES—Both are targeted for a currently unused corner of the park, just to the southeast of the city swimming pool.
The more elaborate design shows a central plaza surrounded by circles, each of which would be dedicated to a conflict in which Rockdale’s service personnel participated.
“They would be filled by flowers which are representative of that war,” Whittaker said. “For instance, you would have poppies for World War I.”
There would be a central plaza, a flag plaza and a brick-lined memorial walkway. It’s envisioned that walkway would include individual bricks with names of service personnel, to be purchased by the public.
The design also calls for granite markers denoting the branches of each armed service.
CEREMONY—“It would be a very nice and an attractive addition to the park. Plans for call for lighting at night and we can imagine it would be very impressive.”
Whittaker said the area would be large enough in which to hold ceremonies.
All funding details have yet to be worked out. “There might be some in-kind donations we can use,” he said. “We would think the Master Gardeners would be involved in the flower aspect of the project.”
He said the name of deceased war veterans—those listed on the Milam County Courthouse grounds in Cameron and honored every Memorial Day—are not currently planned for the area.
Much like the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day, the park project is designed to honor all veterans, past and present, living and deceased, he said.
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