Overview:

The Athol Selectboard has given permission for two monuments honoring local veterans who served in Afghanistan and the War on Terror to be temporarily placed at Veterans Park until a permanent home can be found. The monuments were initially removed to correct a spelling error on the stone honoring those who served in Afghanistan. The memorials will be placed at the park in a spot that won't be affected by planned work on the park's retaining wall.

This stone marker was removed to correct a spelling error to “Afghanistan.” The correction was made, and now the search is on to find a permanent home for the markers. GREG VINE / For the Athol Daily News

ATHOL – John Dodge, volunteer coordinator of the town’s veterans center at Lord Pond Plaza, appeared before the Selectboard at its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, in hopes of finding a home for two monuments honoring Athol veterans who served in Afghanistan and the War on Terror.

The stone memorials have been displayed at Veterans Park in downtown Athol since early last fall, but were removed temporarily to correct a spelling error on the stone honoring those who served in Afghanistan. The correction was made but, before returning it to the downtown park, Dodge wanted to make sure the Veterans Center had permission to display it and its companion stone at the park until a permanent home can be found.

Dodge told the board, “I thought that maybe this was just going to be a temporary home for those two monuments, because we knew that there was going to be some work done at the Veterans Park. This is the first time we’ve had the chance to come in and talk to you to see how we should proceed. Whatever it is, we’ll abide by that.”

Before the memorials were removed to correct the error, they were at the southeast corner of the park. That location, however, is near the back of the park where its retaining wall is showing signs of buckling. Dodge said he spoke with DPW Assistant Director Paul Raskevitz and told him if permission we given to return the stones to the park, “It would be in a spot that wasn’t ever going to need to be worked on by the town, whether it was the plumbing for the fountain, the (retaining) wall, or whatever. This will only be a temporary place for them until we can figure out where they should go permanently.”

“I’m really happy to know that you are aware that we’re planning to do some work on the park,” said Selectboard Chair Rebecca Bialecki. “So, wherever they land right now, they might get moved.”

Initial estimates to repair the retaining wall have come in at around $150,000, according to Town Manager Shaun Suhoski.

Board member Bill Chiasson asked Dodge where local veterans would like to see the memorials installed.

“Well, we thought they’d be appropriate by the back wall, but we know we can’t put them there because the wall has a big crack in it and needs to be fixed,” Dodge said. “And we haven’t really looked at other places, but we thought about other places they could go if they couldn’t go there, even temporarily. We thought maybe we could take them to the Legion and put them around the flagpole there.”

Bialecki recommended that the monuments return to Veterans Park for now. To that end, Grosky motioned that the monuments be placed at the park “until such time as it’s decided what the most appropriate place is for them.” The motion was approved unanimously.

“If they need to be moved we’ll pay to move them,” said Dodge, “or we’ll move them ourselves. I’ll speak with DPW and if at any time they’re in the way we’ll take care of it.”