If the efforts of members of the Cannonsburg Optimist Club are successful, the Boyd County War Memorial in Armco Park will look much different on Veteran’s Day on Nov, 11 than it does today. By then, the club hopes that a World War II mobile artillery unit now in Central Park will have been moved to the war memorial, and a replica Civil War cannon and bricks bearing the names of Boyd County veterans will have been placed at the memorial.
The club also hopes to add the names of the two Boyd County residents who have been killed in Iraq — Army Spc. Joey Cantrell of Westwood and Army Pfc. Scott Messer of Ashland — included on the memorial that now lists the names of a total of 258 Boyd County soldiers killed in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. That would be a fitting honor to these two fallen heroes.
“What we want to do is upgrade it, make it something we can be proud of,” said Optimist Club President Eulas Hayes of the club’s plans for the war memorial.
Don’t get Hayes wrong. The war memorial is long way from being an eyesore. The memorial has a beautiful, highly visible location on a hillside overlooking heavily traveled U.S. 60, and the Cannonsburg Optimist Club has done an excellent job caring for the memorial since assuming that responsibility a few years ago. The Optimists simply want to make the memorial even better.
Hayes, a sergeant in the U.S. Marines from 1954 to 1957, has a special affection for the memorial and has logged hundreds of volunteer hours caring for it. He placed the rocks that form the American flag at the memorial after seeing a similar flag design while on vacation.
The club already has added poles that fly the American and Kentucky flags and the flags of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard at the memorial. The club has renovated some of the concrete at the memorial and has ambitious plans for other improvements.
To raise money, the club is selling for $100 each commemorative bricks to be placed at the memorial. The bricks can be engraved with three lines of up to 15 letters each. At a place memorializing those who died in combat, the bricks provide an excellent way for friends and family to honor those who served honorably in the military and have gone on to become valued members of this community.
The club also has asked Boyd County Fiscal Court to contribute $12,000 to purchase the Civil War replica cannon for the war memorial. The court has taken the request under advisement.
With Veteran’s Day now less than six months away, the club has a lot of money to raise and much work to do to meet its self-imposed deadline for improving the war memorial. But we are certain club members think they can accomplish their ambitious task. After all, that’s why they are called Optimists.
Editorials
Raising funds — 05/12/09
Cannonsburg Optimists have ambitious plans for memorial
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
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Try again
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'Asset poor'
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Safer mines
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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