Tuesday, March 21, 2000
Plaza to honor military service
Citizen groups raising money
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SHARONVILLE — In the 1970s, vandalism and construction of a new dam to control the stream off Creek Road spelled the end to this city's small Veterans Memorial.
Since then, residents and community groups have been asking for a new one, said Councilman Bill Lewis, who has led a drive for a more visible and lasting memorial.
If efforts to raise the community groups' projected $158,000 share of the $558,000 project are successful, ground breaking will be held on Memorial Day next year. A dedication ceremony is tentatively set for Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2001. Preliminary drawings and design plans for the memorial are completed, with some minor changes likely to come, Mr. Lewis said.
The city has earmarked $400,000 for site prepara tion. The memorial will be located between the Sharonville Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County and Thornview Drive east of Reading Road, said Christine Pope, assistant to the mayor.
It will be across Thornview Drive from the city park and tennis courts.
The Sharonville Veterans Memorial Fund Inc. is a nonprofit organization formed to help bring a memorial back to this northeastern Hamilton County community by raising the local group's share.
The 30-member group is composed of veterans' groups, social and civic organizations, city officials and interested citizens.
“We want to reinvent patriotism. For many children today, they have never lived through a war and do not understand what some of these people did or the sacrifices they made,” said Ms. Pope.
“Sharonville has a great history of people defending our country's honor and the Veterans Memorial will be an honor to them,” said Mayor Virgil Lovitt.
“We not only want to honor those who gave their lives to, or served, the country; it is an educational thing for present and future generations to let them gain a realization of what this freedom we enjoy costs,” Mr. Lewis said.
Ms. Pope said the city and architects are preparing a grant application to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to recoup up to 75 percent of the city's memorial site development contribution.
Mr. Lewis said the basic concept is to create a curved stone wall with etched plaques in niches depicting scenes from various wars. Specific scenes have not yet been chosen. A center column will name the memorial along with an American flag or some other national symbol.
Kiosks facing the wall from the periphery of a brick plaza will honor the six branches of the services — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.
The main entrance, accessible to the disabled, will be off the parking lot with another access walk from the Thornview Drive sidewalk.
Mr. Lewis said the location provides enough space for memorial ceremonies or other events and shares the library's parking lot. It can provide a beginning or ending point for parades.
To raise money, the group intends to ask for donations at various community events, solicit contributions from businesses and community organizations, and sell memorial bricks to create the plaza. The cost of a brick will be announced in the near future.
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