The Bradford Co Veterans Memorial Park Association and the Towanda Borough administrators are in exciting times as we watch the new park taking shape. The pavers and benches, along with The Veteran poem monument were in storage for the winter months courtesy of Global Tungsten Powders on Merrill Parkway, Towanda. We have since moved them to a nearby facility owned by Towanda Borough to make installation easier and quicker.
Belles Monument Company of Sayre started to place the benches in the park but as you know the weather has not cooperated. As of April 10th, the poem monument is in place where it will stand forever and six of the fourteen benches were also installed. And then the Heavens opened up to rain on our parade. Belles had to temporarily withdraw but construction will continue as soon as possible. If you have the time and are in the area feel free to use the parking lot and visit the site for a good feel of our progress. BCVMPA has long reaching plans for development of the project and we have some surprises planned too. All of it hinges on two things; money and contractor scheduling.
We plan an opening day ceremony at the park and God willing we will give our citizens a usable park on Independence Day, the 4th of July. The flags will be changed out, the pavers will be in place and all the benches will be installed and engraved. Also in the works are seven interesting and inspiring monuments. All of this has been paid for through charitable donations and paver sponsorship by you our veteran families, some Townships and Boroughs and a few highly valued corporate entities. BCVMPA is extremely appreciative of all you have done to help us get to where we are as we honor our men and women of the armed forces; past present and future. I would like to give you a hint of things to come. Does anyone remember “Rosie the Riveter?”
Now here’s the “not so good” news.
We had to reject some of the pavers due to grammatical errors. This may hold up installation for a little while but we have been assured that all the pavers will be ready prior to our planned ceremony. We hope to install the larger pavers fairly soon as they were good to go; that’s where contractor scheduling comes into play; we’re working on it!
As we look to future monetary requirements and compare it to our budget and cash reserves we have no other recourse than to raise the sponsorship costs on the pavers. The larger pavers 1’ x 1,’ were $275 each but are now $300. This increase was put into place last week. The personal brick type pavers were $100 but as of April 25th they will be $125. If you ever wanted to sponsor your veteran loved one with a paver, avoid the price increase do it now.
All things considered and in the long range scope of good things to come for the development of this landmark facility BCVMPA has every confidence that someday soon we will all stand in awe as the unique bronze statue known as “The Quintessential Soldier” will be unveiled. I hope to see you there.