By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
If the Crawford County Veteran’s Hall of Fame has any say about it, the corner of Walnut and Mansfield streets will be looking a little less empty. Members of the Veteran’s Hall of Fame committee met with Crawford County Commissioners Doug Weisenauer and Jenny Vermillion Tuesday afternoon to discuss a monument proposal for the front of the courthouse.
Sean Longstreth, owner of Longstreth Memorials, had teamed up with the Veteran’s Hall of Fame to create the proposals for a Veteran’s Hall of Fame monument. He presented the three options to the commissioners. Descriptions of the designs are as follows:
First design: mimics the existing memorial in front of the courthouse. Emblems of the branches of service will be engraved on the base of the memorial while emblems of the wars will be on the monument. “Crawford County Veteran’s Hall of Fame” and all inductees will be on the monument’s face. This monument would be 12’ long, 4’ high, and 2’ wide. The cost for this design comes in at $35,600 with an additional $1,600 for foundation work.
Second design: this design is pulled from the Veteran’s Hall of Fame memorial inside Bucyrus City Hall. It would be a pentagonal prism in the center with two sides projecting five foot long tablets, which will feature inscriptions of each class of veterans. The top of the prism will showcase the branches of the service while the base of the tablets will hold inlays of bronze emblems of the wars. The size of this monument is 12’ long, 5’ high, and 3’ 4” wide. The cost for this design comes in at $29,500 with an additional $2,400 for foundation work.
Third design: this design will be a star-shaped memorial mimicking the wooden memorial in Bucyrus City Hall. The five branches of military will be located on top of the design with text inscription able to be added on each side. The text would be representative to each branch of service or reference freedoms, sacrifice, and bravery. A wing of each branch would be extended beyond the star, allowing for the names of inductees to be inscribed. The wars will be represented in pavers placed on the ground around the memorial. This monument would have a total area of 14’ x 5’ x 14’. The cost for this design comes in at $60,700 with an additional $3,100 for foundation work. This memorial could also include an 18’ diameter garden area.
Any granite used in the designs will be from Rock of Ages, a company based out of Vermont. Longstreth noted that the granite would have a lifetime guarantee between Longstreth Memorials and Rock of Ages.
Don Scheerer, a member of the Crawford County Veteran’s Hall of Fame, said they met with the commissioners to give them an idea of what the Veteran’s Hall of Fame was looking at and to receive any input from them.
“We’re trying to incorporate all veterans together,” Scheerer said, “make this for all veterans, not just the Hall of Fame veterans.”
Scheerer and Longstreth both noted that the Veteran’s Hall of Fame has been leaning more towards the third design.
The commissioners will not be spending money on the initial project; rather, they are furnishing the space for the Veteran’s Hall of Fame to install the memorial. Once installed, the monument will be turned over to the county for maintenance and insurance purposes. If the Veteran’s Hall of Fame does choose the third design, the county would be responsible for any kind of landscaping or gardening, though Scheerer said local organizations may be interested in helping out with that aspect.
“You’ve got our commitment as far as space,” Weisenauer said at the end of the meeting. “You’re welcome to it.”
If plans move ahead for the third design, Scheerer said they would be able to sell pavers recognizing local service members in an effort to raise funds.
“With the pavers we sell and what we get from the fraternal organizations and the veterans organizations here in the county, I think we can make it. Like I said, if we don’t make number three we’ll certainly make number two,” Scheerer said. “I think when people see what we’re after, they’ll like it.”
Scheerer said the Veteran’s Hall of Fame is currently working to receive its tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service. Until that time, they will hold off on doing any fundraisers. He hoped that the community would get behind the project, something that has been eight years in the making.