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Community effort moves memorial plan forward |
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
 Big Pine Veterans Memorial Committee Co-chairperson Barbara Marzano looks on as Big Pine Civic Club President Rick Fields displays one of the commemorative plaques that will adorn a new memorial honoring America’s armed forces. Groundbreaking is expected to occur in early summer. Photo by Ken Koerner
By Ken Koerner
Register Staff5-6-2008
With so many American men and women under fire in foreign wars, paying tribute to all those, past and present, that have served bravely in our nation’s armed forces gains a special perspective. Honoring those citizens’ commitment has a group of Big Pine residents working to recognize military service in a special way.
The Big Pine Civic Club has taken the lead in creating a new memorial where the towering flags alongside U.S. 395 have waved for years to commemorate all U.S. veterans.
Triggered in part to the interest of some soldiers who, stopping at the current memorial while passing through Big Pine, where the road to Westgard Pass meets U.S. 395 and informal discussions took place, then meetings were held and volunteers started to appear in support of creating an expanded veterans memorial at the site.
“The desire to construct a new veterans memorial actually started back before 9/11 (the date of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the U.S. Pentagon), when some guys from Edwards Air Force Base were traveling through here and stopped when they saw the flags,” Big Pine Civic Club member and co-chairperson of the Veterans Memorial Committee Margie Steele said. “They were inspired by the flag memorial and came to talk with us, which eventually led to Edwards AFB adopting Big Pine as a ‘sister-city’ because it was a great location for a memorial – and they really loved Big Pine.”
The three men from Edwards AFB just happened to be from the Middle-Tier Group/Public Relations unit. Seeing the positive and highly-visible location of the existing memorial, they determined this was something mutually-beneficial that the base’s commanding officer would readily support.
Thus far, that support has been of the “moral support” variety, due, it was explained, to some successive changes of staff at the base; but the linkage has served to help propel the Big Pine Civic Club toward the proactive posture that’s finally brought about plans being drawn and relationships being forged.
“Lots of different agencies have stepped up and are participating to help ensure this memorial comes to pass,” Big Pine resident, veteran and the project’s construction advisor Jim Westervelt said. “I’ve been mostly involved in preparing material-cost estimates, working on the plan layout and design considerations.”
Among the agencies that are lending a hand in this process is CalFire, which was represented by Joe Tabush during a meeting of the Veterans Memorial Committee at the planned site on April 30.
“I’m really here today on behalf of Captain Roger Thompson and the entire Round Valley CalFire team,” Tabush said. “Our agency received a project request from the committee and we’re prepared to offer help from our crews to get the memorial completed.”
Also present during the meeting were the other co-chairperson of the Memorial Committee, Barbara Marzano, Big Pine Civic Club President and Committee Member Rick Fields, Committee Member Greg Knight, club member and electrician Jim Harlis, project supporters and contributors Mickey and Betty Calvin, and representatives from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Mark Hodges and Stan Hudson.
Hudson, the Cal Tech observatory’s chief machinist, has volunteered to create a “metal map” of the Sierra Nevada peaks visible from the site, in order to allow visitors to be able to line up either of two “sighting-tubes” on one of the towering Sierra edifices and easily identify the specific mountain in their view.
The Owens Valley Radio Observatory/Cal Tech is donating all the time and materials required for Hudson to create and install this signature map. The 18-foot, 6-inch map itself, based upon a photograph, will be horizontally-secured to the top of the gracefully curving arch, faced with slate stones, that will comprise the memorial’s foundational structure.
Lining the front of the memorial’s base will be circular bronze plaques representing each branch of the military, as well as a special plaque dedicated to POW-MIA’s (prisoners of war and missing-in-action veterans).
Steele and Marzano explained that the plan’s overall design and drawing were chiefly the work of Big Pine resident Greg Berg.
The cost of the materials for the memorial, according to committee members, is likely to be about $15,000, “depending on what materials may end up being donated.” The value of the donated labor that will be provided by volunteer supporters was described as “priceless.”
Groundbreaking for the new monument is expected to take place in early summer, 2008.
Anyone with “free-time and skills” to contribute to the project are asked to contact Jim Westervelt at (760) 938-2508.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the project’s cost is advised to send their “check, money order or cash” to: The Big Pine Civic Club, “Veterans Memorial,” P.O. Box 595, Big Pine, CA 93513.
For additional information, contact Margie Steele (760) 938-2295, Barbara Marzano (760) 920-8670, or Rick Fields (760) 938-2319.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 June 2008 )
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| I love Bishop for its fishing, hiking, and camping and epecially for its history in my family. But most recently for the fact that now I have an even better excuse to visit since my dad moved there! Bishop here I come! Jennifer Gouaihardou - Galway, Ireland | |
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