A new monument honoring inductees of the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame is moving forward in Alexandria.
Veterans, including former Alexandria Mayor Bill Rachford, Angela Murphy, Terence Bell, Tim Rolf, Ron Allari, Bill Brauns and Steve Weber, attended the April city council meeting to discuss the new monument.
Rachford, who represented the group at the meeting, said there are about a dozen monuments like the one proposed (for the new city building) across the state.
The back of the monument will list the veterans’ names, branch of service and the year they were inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame. 15 names will appear on the monument.
“Members of the veterans hall of fame, we will get the monument produced, inscribed, erected and paid for,” Rachford said. “So none of that involves the city.”
The city’s responsibility, under the memorandum of understanding, is to provide the foundation for the monument, which is essentially a concrete base that supports the 7-foot, 3,000-pound granite memorial.
The new monument comes after the city had been trying to plan how to move Tribute Park to the new city complex located on Constable Drive and U.S. 27, so that it would be in a more accessible area; however, the city announced in March that it could not move the stamped concrete pavers 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.
Rachford said the city plans to relocate the four benches outside the Tribute Park, near the city building, to the new monument’s location.
“Right here on 27, when you’re trying to have a solemn moment to remember the veterans, it’s hard to do with cars going by,” Alexandria Mayor Andy Schabell said. “This (new monument) will give us a space that’s a little bit more quiet, a little bit more reflective and more toward the nature of what it should be.”
Tim Rolf, owner of Rolf Monument and a Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame inductee, is producing the monument.
“We’re trying to figure out now the best way to take all of that information from the Tribute Park, don’t lose that, bring it over, but make it much more lasting and more permanent,” Rolf said.
He said that Tribute Park is in limbo until the city decides what to do. Rolf said his idea is a “knee wall,” or knee-height monument, inscribed with the names of veterans at Tribute Park, with space for additional names.
The new monument space would also have the brass emblems of each branch of the service on the ground, similar to Tribute Park.
“I think the knee-high wall idea is a great catch-all for what we’re trying to do out there,” Alexandria City Administrator David Plummer said. “There’s also maintenance concerns (at Tribute Park.) If you go out there, the amount of sealers that get put on the stamped concrete over time has really blurred a lot of the messaging. It’s not very respectful for the ones who bought that piece of memorabilia.”
As veterans continue to be inducted into the hall of fame, Rolf said it would be the city’s responsibility to add those new names to the monument, but as long as he and his company are around, he would do that at no cost.
Both parties signed the memorandum of agreement at the city council meeting to move forward with the monument.
