It looks like a Veterans Memorial will be built outside the Arnold Recreation Center, 1695 Missouri State Road, this summer, Parks and Recreations Director Dave Crutchley said.
The city has ordered bricks and benches for the memorial, which are expected to be delivered in June or July, and then construction is expected to begin in July or August, he said.
Crutchley said the memorial will be built near the rec center gazebo and will include a flagpole that used to be outside Arnold City Hall but was recently replaced with three new poles when the police memorial there was improved.
City Council members voted unanimously April 20 to pay $20,205 to PG Memorials in Derby Line, Vt., for the benches to be included in the Veterans Memorial.
In addition, the city will pay $10,100 to Paverart Enterprises in Lidenwold, N.J., for the custom paving bricks that also will be part of the memorial, Crutchley said. “We are really excited about this,” he said. “It is something that is special for the veterans and the city. What the design came out to look like at the end is respectful and simple. We are very happy with it.”
The city is teaming up with the Veterans Commission to pay for the project, which will cost an estimated $40,000, Crutchley said.
He said the commission has been holding fundraisers to cover the project and so far has raised about $18,000. Of that, $10,000 was a donation from the Arnold Jaycees, a nonprofit organization.
City Administrator Bryan Richison said the city will provide funding for the project if needed and is providing funds upfront so the project can get started.
The commission can reimburse the city later, he added.
“We didn’t want to wait any longer because who knows if they will get enough to completely pay for it and how long that might take,” Richison said. “(The commission) will continue to fund-raise. It is possible they will eventually raise enough money to offset the cost. We are fronting the money to get it done.”
The memorial
Crutchley’s daughter, Kennady, a 21-year-old in the third year of a four-year architecture program at Rankin Technical Institute, designed the memorial.
“The Veterans Committee came up with an idea, and she put it together,” Dave Crutchley said. “They went back and forth. She took what they wanted, and they decided on the final design.”
Crutchley said he is proud of his daughter’s design.
“She volunteered to do it,” he said. “It is something I can’t wait to see be done for the veterans and the city, and because she designed it, it is special for me.”
The design calls for a concrete walkway leading to a circular area with a star made out of paving bricks in the center of the circle. One of the star points will be made of colored bricks that give the appearance of a waving American flag.
“They are separate bricks that are colored all the way through,” Crutchley said of the flag image in the star point. “The company, Paverart, has done work all over the country. They do beautiful stuff.”
Five benches will be placed around the edge of the circle, and each bench will feature at least one military insignia – one for the Army, one for the Navy, another for the Marine Corps, one for the Coast Guard, and the fifth bench will feature insignias for both the Air Force and the Space Force.
The flagpole that used to be part of the police memorial at City Hall will be erected at the site so an American flag can be flown from it.
“I think it is a great idea, and the city officials want to help,” said Ward 4 Councilman Gary Plunk, who along with Ward 3 Councilman Rodney Mullins serves as a council liaison to the Veterans Commission.
“This will complement the 9/11 memorial very well. We want something that is classy and says we care.”