LITTLE ROCK — North Little Rock City Council members approved Monday having the city front the full $160,000 cost for a veterans memorial in Laman Plaza.
The amount is $10,000 more than originally estimated for the memorial that will be in the outdoor plaza at Laman Library off Pershing Boulevard and Orange Street.
The council had already allocated $100,000 of that amount for the city-sponsored memorial and the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce has pledged to raise $50,000 of the cost.
The city needed to allocate the full amount now, Mayor Patrick Hays said, so $116,450 in granite can be ordered. The city wants to meet a deadline for the memorial’s completion in time for Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
There were no questions from council members.
“We hope to raise the additional dollars,” Hays said. “We think we can bring it in under $160,000.”
The design of the memorial includes an 11-foot tall column of imported granite that will be a backdrop to a sculpture of an inverted rifle with helmet and boots known as the “tribute to a fallen soldier.” The entire memorial will be on a concrete dais 26 feet in diameter.
Columns of black granite on either side of the centerpiece are to have names of North Little Rock residents killed in action inscribed on them.
A Veterans Memorial Committee is collecting names through the Laman Library website www.laman.net of anyone killed in action who would have lived within the current limits of North Little Rock. Names must be verified for eligibility.
“North Little Rock’s boundaries have grown,” said Alderman Debi Ross, the committee’s chairman.“Anyone who lived in any area that is now in North Little Rock would count.”
Ross asked for anyone knowing of a former resident who was killed during military action to go to the library website and submit that name.
The website lists 39 names that have been verified so far. A preliminary committee estimate early this year counted about 200 names that could be inscribed on the granite walls. The memorial will leave room for other names to be added as needed.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/29/2010