RIVERDALE -- The city has collected 406 names of military veterans to give to a committee for a veterans memorial, and city officials hope a tribute to all veterans will be enough for now.
City Administrator Larry Hansen recommends that a granite memorial giving a "generic and fitting" tribute to all veterans be put in the civic center courtyard by Memorial Day.
The nonprofit organization associated with the senior center's programs could form a committee to collect donations and gather and verify names to be put on the pavers throughout the courtyard, he said.
The city's webmaster could create a virtual museum on a site listing names, pictures and stories of veterans who have lived in the city.
Hansen said one drawback to the new plan is that those who have submitted names may expect the city to memorialize those names.
"They might have the notion their name is going to be on a memorial," he said.
"One of the difficulties we have is the big, granite tablet has a 372-name capacity, (and the original design) only allowed 56 paver bricks. If we're going to engrave something in granite, it ought to be accurate.
"Doing that by Memorial Day is a lot of work. ... In order to avoid having staff getting bogged down in verifications and research, why couldn't we consider setting up an ad hoc committee? Let's involve anyone who wants to be involved and provide a process that individual names could be memorialized."
Hansen said the committee may decide to have donors sponsor a veteran and include other information, such as branch or dates of service, on the pavers in the courtyard.
Councilman Norm Searle suggested the quote on the granite memorial be gender-neutral but, along with the rest of the council, enthusiastically supported the proposal.
"(With memorials) you miss people. You can't help it. What I like about this is, it's flexible."
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