Committee raising funds for statue
LINNEUS, Maine — A town committee is currently raising funds, and generating interest in, the creation of a town monument to honor its local veterans.
“We are in the process of recognizing those veterans who have honorably served our armed forces,” explained Keith Harrington, chairman of the Linneus Veterans’ Memorial Committee. “There is nothing in town at all.”
Harrington said discussion began about three years ago at the annual town meeting to create some type of salute for the local veterans. Thus began a lengthy process of establishing the criteria for honoring veterans, as well as figuring out what type of monument the town would have.
“First, we had to have a special town meeting to have the town vote on creating a special committee,” he said. “That step was taken last November. Our first meeting was in February. At this point, we are a very small group.
Brent Estabrook is heading the finance portion of the committee, while other committee members include Tim Cady, Viola Byron, Linda McGuire, Larry Byron and Bernie Jordan.
Harrington, a retired member of the Army, said a “best guess” estimate is that the town will need to raise $50,000 for the project. That price could fluctuate if the town has to buy land, or do serious renovations to an existing piece of town-owned land.
“All of the existing pieces of town-owned land have challenges,” he said. “We want something that is going to be permanent, with little cost for upkeep.”
Donations have started to come in. Thus far, the group has only collected a few $100 for the project, Harrington said.
“We are still in the development stage and haven’t decided what type of monument we can do,” he said. “It will likely be a stone monument of some type, with names engraved on it. We are considering a variety of options.”
No timeline has been set for the project. A “Go Fund Me” page has been set up to assist with fund raising (https://www.gofundme.com/wcydehew).
That site, as of Tuesday, did not have any donations on it. For more information, email Harrington at linneusveteransmemorial@yahoo.com
