Memorial planned for city

The local post for the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are working together to construct a memorial for service members from Siloam Springs who were killed in action.

At its last meeting the city board approved Resolution 31-15, which authorized an easement on city property to the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars for the construction of the memorial. The easement will be located near the new site for the library and there is no fiscal impact for granting the proposed easement, according to the city administrator's memorandum.

The memorial will honor 32 different service members who were killed in any conflict from World War I to Operation Enduring Freedom, said Frank Lee, commander of the VFW post 1674. The two groups originally started with more than 39 different names for the monument, but after they employed the local boy scouts to vet the names and do some research the list shrank. The fallen service members were removed because they were not from Siloam Springs, but rather just places near the area such as Gentry or Watts, Okla., Lee said.

The cost for the memorial is estimated to be around $58,000, but it has also shrunk, said J.W. Smith of post 29 of the American Legion.

"The reason that is, we have had several businesses and contractors come forward with donations of labor and materials," Smith said. "If we did not have those donations the total cost would be somewhere around $85,000."

The original location for the monument was near the corner of Mt.Olive and Jefferson Streets. The two organizations later decided that placing the memorial that close to a busy street was not a great idea.

"We moved it back in case there was an accident, and we just thought it would be nice," Lee said. "This is a memorial where people probably want a serene place where they want to contemplate on their loved ones."

Now that the city resolution is approved the next steps in the process are getting the building permit, which the project manager for the VFW has already applied for, Lee said. After that is ground breaking and then construction. The ground breaking ceremony will be on Sept. 11 if there aren't any hangups in the process, Smith said.

"The memorial committee of the two organizations will maintain the memorial," Smith said. "But also, we have asked the city to provide the electricity for the lighting of the flags and the monument. We will maintain the physical lights and stuff like that, but we asked the city to provide the electricity to light the names and flags."

Some of the other maintenance work includes things such as landscaping.

To help fund the project the organizations have started a buy-a-brick program where people can purchase a designated brick that will be inscribed and dedicated to a person, people or an organization.

"They do not have to be a veteran," Lee said about the bricks. "If you just want to honor someone or honor an organization, like if Main Street Siloam Springs would like to do a brick. I am doing one for my father. We have enough space for about 350 names and they are going to go down along the front in the flag pole area. So anyone that would like to sponsor anything, we have several people who have purchased bricks in honor of a loved one or a friend. This gives them the opportunity to continually honor someone."

The deadline for purchasing a brick is Sept. 30.

For those who wish to help, but do not want to buy a brick, donations can be made to the Siloam Springs KIA memorial fund at Centennial Bank. Also if there are people who want to help the organizations, but lack the funds, there is always volunteer opportunities with both organizations.

"I feel it is important that we do not lose our history," Lee said as to why he wants to build the memorial. "I don't want to lose the history of our local area, where people have given their lives for our freedom."