Ground broken for LWR vets memorial

LAKEWOOD RANCH — The symbolic first spade of earth was turned Wednesday at San Marco Plaza for the proposed Veterans Memorial Park.

Organizers hope to dedicate the completed park on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

George Johnston, commander of Braden River Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 12055, welcomed the launch of the new memorial.

“Like Lakewood Ranch, we’re growing rapidly,” Johnson said. His post, the newest in Manatee County, has about 150 members.

He called the proposed memorial a “magnificent tribute to veterans.”

Johnston quoted from Lt. Col. John McCrae’s World War I poem, “In Flanders Fields,” in which the dead soldiers “speak to us through the poppies.”

Their cry is, “please don’t forget us,” so that their sacrifice will not have been in vain, Johnston said.

Robert A. Moffa of the American Ideals Foundation, a non-profit corporation based in Ruskin, said the purpose of the memorial will be to help the public understand the sacrifices made by veterans.

The memorial, designed by Sarasota architect Richard Allen, will include a display of the flags of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Coast Guard along with their emblems at one entrance of San Marco Plaza.

That area would be connected by a walkway, flanked by granite plaques where families can have the names of veterans in their family inscribed, to a stage and a fountain display, that organizers call dancing waters.

The cost, estimated at $1.6 million, would be paid for through private and corporate contributions. The “liquid fireworks” are expected to be the most expensive part of the project at $1.2 million.

The project is being led Moffa; Allen; William R. Wallace, former president of the Sarasota Sister Cities Association; real estate broker David J. Neff; and Dell Hyland, owner of Wide World Security. Pamela Rice serves as executive secretary for the group.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee Editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.