LITTLE ROCK — Having already obligated $100,000 to a veterans memorial, the North Little Rock City Council is being asked for another $10,000 to help cover the cost for granite as part of the display.
The memorial to honor North Little Rock residents who have served in the military will be built in the enclosed Laman Library Plaza off the corner of Pershing Boulevard and Orange Street.
A resolution sponsored by Mayor Patrick Hays and Alderman Debi Ross, chairman of the city’s Veterans Memorial Committee, will obligate funds temporarily for the entire $160,000 cost of the memorial.
The North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce is overseeing a campaign to raise $50,000 through private donations toward the project. The chamber’s board of directors recently pledged to reimburse the city by that amount regardless of the amount of funds raised, according to a letter from the chamber attached to the legislation.
The City Council previously approved providing $50,000 and “up to” another $50,000 to match whatever the chamber’s campaign raised.
The city needs to appropriate the funds now so the granite for the memorial can be ordered, Ross said Tuesday. The granite will cost $116,450 installed, according to the legislation, about $10,000 more than expected. Concrete is expected to cost $17,000.
The memorial is scheduled for dedication on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
“We need to get the match in place because we need to go ahead and order the granite,” Ross said. “So that’s over what the city is obligated for. The chamber has said it will put up the other $50,000 if needed.
“The two biggest expenses are the granite and the concrete work,” she said. “It’s a pretty massive project when you look at the total amount of granite.”
The memorial’s design includes 5-foot- to 11-foot-tall columns of imported granite as a backdrop to the sculpture of a fallen soldier that will be placed in the memorial’s center. The entire memorial will rest on a concrete dais 26 feet in diameter.
The tallest part of the memorial will be an 11-foot-tall India Red granite block as the center column. The centerpiece block will weigh about 10,000 pounds, Ross said.
Accompanying 5-foot-tall, black granite columns will bear the inscriptions of North Little Rock military personnel killed in action.
Bob Major, the chamber’s special events coordinator, said the start to the chamber’s fundraising campaign has been “a little bit slower than we had hoped.” Still, it has raised about $7,000 so far, he said.
“Part of the problem is we haven’t gotten out the letter yet to churches and the people in the community who we expected would want to participate,” Major said. “We’re kind of lagging behind. But donations have been coming in.”
The memorial committee will be shown samples of the granite at a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the North Little Rock Community Center, Ross said.
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 06/23/2010