Alexandria is reconsidering plans to relocate Tribute Park after determining the memorial’s large granite monuments cannot be moved without damaging them.
Tribute Park is a dedicated space in Alexandria that honors military veterans. It is currently located at the corner of U.S. 27 and W. Main St. in Alexandria, adjacent to the current city building. Alexandria officials discussed a brief update on the plans to move it to the new city campus at its March 5 meeting. The city said that because the names cannot realistically be moved from their current site, it is working with veterans on a new plan.
“I did want to start the conversation on Tribute Park,” said Alexandria City Administrator David Plummer. “It is something the citizens are expecting us to take from this block here on U.S. 27 and West Main to our new campus, but we reviewed it, and we really don’t see any way we can take the majority of items over.”
The conversation about relocating the park to the new city campus, located on Constable Drive and U.S. 27, began in March 2024, when Air Force veterans Mike Ward and Bill Rachford addressed the city council, saying moving the park would allow people to use it.
At the time Ward addressed the city council, he said the pavers were coming up and that the park was in a bad location.
“Right now, everybody drives by it,” he said in March 2024. “When was the last time we saw somebody sitting there, because it’s difficult to park.”
Plummer said the large monuments at the park are granite concreted onto a foundation. He said trying to remove them is likely to crack the product. In addition, all the names that the city has collected over time and put into the ground are set into concrete. It’s stamped concrete, not bricks that can be removed.
Because of that, Plummer said he has been working with Ward, Rachford and another resident to come up with a new idea.
“I’m excited to say where we think we have an idea of what we want to propose,” Plummer said. “It seems like it’s not going to be a very big change from what we initially thought when we started going down this path, but we’ll have something for you guys to look at, and maybe we can start talking to the citizens and get some feedback.”
Plummer said he was unsure what would happen to the current park because the property is leased from Duke Energy, and it would be up to the company whether to continue leasing it. If Duke Energy allowed it to exist, Plummer said the city would likely do minimal maintenance to keep it up and respectful.