The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
VETERANS MEMORIAL
Work almost complete on 5-year project
ONEIDA CASTLE, N.Y. » The veterans memorial that has been planned for andworked on since 2011 is finally reaching the end of its journey.
“Six months ago, we weren’t sure if we were going to have this money do this. We were actually looking to maybe scale this back,” said committee chair Chris Bishop.
For five years, the veteran memorial committee raised money every way it could and did whatever possible to make this vision a reality, Bishop explained. They also reached out to Assembly Bill Magee, D-121, who secured a $60,000 grant through New York State Parks and Recreation.
“We’re not the Gorman Foundation. We don’t have full time jobs as fundraisers. Everything we did, every dollar that went into this, we knowwhere it came from,” Bishop said. “It’s a proud accomplishment for all of us to be able to say that we were a part of that. Because there wasn’t one step of this that was easy. No one said it would be going into this.”
The committee admitted that while there wasn’t a person they met who didn’t want to see this happen, getting to actually have it was another thing altogether.
“We stood in the rain selling hotdogs and hamburgers,” Bishop said, met with laughter
from his fellow committee members.
But with each obstacle they faced, there would always be something around the corner to get everyone more than motivated and inspired, even during the construction itself, he added.
“We had a great construction company,” said committee member Kathy Wojciechowski. “E.J. Construction out of Syracuse has been wonderful.”
“I can’t say enough good about them,” Bishop added.
When the flagpoles were bought for the memorial, they came with an installation kit with simple instructions: a hole is dug, the pole is put into the ground, surrounded with sand and finally sealed with concrete. When flagpole installation started, Bishop did not see E.J. Construction doing that.
“I came by here one day and they had excavated outside the circle. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and then I saw them start to put footers in.” Instead of just drilling the hole and filling it, the company went above and beyond and built footers to go in for the flagpoles, Bishop said.
He expected to be told that this would cost them extra. That wasn’t the case. “We just didn’t want them to move,” E.J. Construction told them.
Throughout the six years, Bishop said the committee not only stayed together, but actually added members. “Just the fact that a committee can stay together for six years and still be on speaking terms is pretty dang impressive,” he said, laughing.
The dedication for the memorial will be on Sept. 30 at 3 p.m. with Magee, the Canastota American Legion and Verona VFW in attendance.
“We’re going to be in a good place when it’s all said and done,” Bishop said.