To answer the query concerning the veteran’s park.
Congratulations you are one of the few within the Shawnee city limits that is aware that there is/was a park dedicated to veterans. My children were almost ready to graduate before I found out what that was.
The park was put together in approximately 1946 and was funded by a door-to-door campaign for enough money to build it. When it went up there was a flag pole and large lights which lasted a very short time before being put out of commission. It is on county property, not city and is a county memorial and was cleaned (restored) by one of the local veterans groups about five years ago. Names have been added to it over the years to cover county veterans.
When the Veterans Memorial is built we intend to approach the county commissioners about having it moved to the downtown location. This request was made years ago and the answer was not to the best interest of the veterans. There was a lawyer attempting to raise funds a few years back who wanted to bring in a couple of tanks to flank the column. Inoperative of course.
The plans are on the table for the veterans park downtown and veterans are trying to iron out a few details, inclding the funding. What started out as a simple item to commemorate the service of our local veterans and to say thank you to all the veterans in the state, because we all worked together to get a job done, each in his own time and method. Any person who wore the uniform of any branch of the military, whether alive or deceased, whether an officer or an enlisted man/woman deserves the small pat on the back this symbolic park can show.
I think and this is my personal opinion that if and when, this park should be finished, it will be a showcase for the city of Shawnee and the pride of the military personnel will repay the county and the city two fold as a community that appreciates what has been achieved by so few and the freedom they have been given to enjoy it in.
I would only hope the citizens will come together with us and help this become another gem in the crowning glory of the city of Shawnee.
Tom Smith,
Shawnee
