SPRINGDALE -- A group of former soldiers and their families who say they want to build a veterans memorial in Springdale introduced their project to the City Council on Monday.
Jeff Vinegar told council members that 28,748 veterans live in Washington and Benton counties. "But there is no memorial to them in Springdale," he said. "There's no place set aside where people can gather and learn about and remember the veterans. There's no place to gather and reflect and show pride and support."
Vinegar said a few plaques and statues around the city do pay small tribute.
Vinegar is a retired Air Force colonel who served 26 years as a civil engineer. He addressed the council as treasurer of the Springdale Veterans Memorial Association.
"I've always dreamed of having a place in my hometown where I can place an honor brick and bring my family and friends and share the stories and honor them," said Jannie Layne, vice president of the organization.
Layne's son always wanted to be a soldier, she remembered. The late Army Sgt. 1st Class Bo Swearingen was born in Fayetteville, raised in Springdale and a 1995 graduate of Springdale High School.
Swearingen and his wife, Lori, were killed in a motorcycle accident at Winslow after a rally raising money for disabled veterans, reads the website of Bo's Blessings, a foundation Layne founded to meet the needs of local military members and their families.
The City Council gave informal consent for the memorial to be built on 4 acres in J.B. Hunt Park. The proposed site sits south of the eastern entrance of the park, on the land the city originally proposed for construction of an animal shelter.
Mayor Doug Sprouse said the city would plan public meetings about the site before the council could approve it.
"I don't know that you'll find a better piece of property that's a blank slate. But, I've been wrong before," he said.
The memorial organization will soon begin fundraising and announce a design contest for the memorial, Vinegar said. Members hope to attract submissions from architects and architecture students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Springdale voters approved $19 million to build an animal shelter for the city in a 2019 bond program. City officials considered the parkland for the shelter.
Neighbors of the site voiced many fears, including noise, smell and dogs running loose. The City Council abandoned that site, and the city soon will begin construction on a shelter near Don Tyson Parkway and Old Missouri Road.
Soph Alexander likes the idea of the memorial but feels uncertain about the chosen site.
"Well, it's better than an animal shelter," she said. Alexander's home is next to J.B. Hunt Park. She said many groups using the pavilion at that end of park hold informal softball and kickball games on the grassy spot.
Alexander also wasn't sure the site is visible enough for a veterans memorial.
"They really need to be able to go and see what the military was all about, things people are kind of forgetting the veterans did," she said. "The veterans provided us a free country. We need to do so much more recognizing all the things the veterans did to us, but who's going to see it there? It doesn't seem like such a wonderful thing should be hidden."
Alexander's husband, the late Dean Alexander, was an Army specialist in a transportation unit, serving most of his time in Alaska. Soph Alexander remains involved in the auxiliary program of the Beely-Johnson American Legion Post in Springdale. She isn't a member of the memorial organization.
Jim Reed said the Springdale memorial organization's members plan for "something that will surpass all other memorials. And we're thinking maybe we'll build a museum inside." Reed is a former member of the City Council and serves on the memorial's advisory board.
He was an Air Force welder for four years during the end of the Vietnam War era, he said. He worked nine stories underground in the intercontinental ballistic missile silos.
"This is not a war memorial. It's a memorial to all veterans, whether they are local or overseas," Reed added.
Vinegar agreed with the organizers' dream of a local monument on a scale comparable to the monuments on the National Mall in Washington. He said the organization's leaders hope to raise $5 million to $10 million to build the memorial.
"We're not doing it just for the veterans. We're doing it for the community," Vinegar said. He said the group hopes the memorial will attract visitors to the city and enhance the park.
Other Northwest Arkansas cities memorialize their veterans. Bella Vista honors its veterans with the Wall of Honor in a park north of Bella Vista Lake. Rogers continues construction of a memorial at Rogers Cemetery, which will include the names of veterans buried at the cemetery. Lowell erected a monument -- donated by April and Glenn Jones -- in its new Kathleen Johnson Memorial Park. And many veterans lie at rest in Fayetteville National Cemetery.
Metro on 06/07/2019