Veterans hope state can pay to move York County memorial

Today, if you want to visit the memorial to those York County residents who fought and died for America, you might have to go a little out of your way.

The official York County Veterans Memorial sits in a cemetery outside of York, where the names of 214 county residents killed in every conflict since World War I sit carved into a stone monument in what a small hanging sign labels the Field of Honor.

But now the York County Veterans Advisory Council is hoping to move the 30-year-old memorial to a more central location that would make it easier for county residents to pay their respects. Whether they can might depend on if the Legislature can find the money to pay for the move.

Veterans hope to move the monument from the privately owned Lakeview Memory Gardens on Filbert Highway between York and Clover, which hosts ceremonies like the one held annually on the Sunday before Memorial Day.

Earlier in the legislative process, the proposed 2016-17 state budget included $90,000 to help the veterans’ council buy approximately three acres of land from Norfolk Southern Railway. But when the budget went into conference committee between the House and Senate as the session came to a close last week, the memorial funding wound up “below the line” for items on the chopping block.

That doesn’t mean the move is off the table. Sen. Creighton Coleman, D-Winnsboro, whose district includes the cemetery and proposed park ground, said he hopes to find other money when the Legislature returns for a special budget session next week.

The land would form a York Veterans Park on Liberty Street, between the York Public Library and the Greater York Chamber of Commerce.

Members of the veterans council hope to make the move because they don’t think a private cemetery is the ideal place to honor York County’s veterans.

“Some of the folks at Lakeview don’t like us to set up our tents on the graves of their loved ones, which I understand,” said Doc Sweet, chairman of the veterans council.

Besides which, Sweet said, their ability to use the grounds depends on whether they have a scheduling conflict with a funeral.

“We shouldn’t be hanging in the air every time we want to do something for veterans,” Sweet said.

Veterans council treasurer J.J. Mattingly estimates the group needs $120,000 to pay for the land and relocate the monument along with a Purple Heart Memorial currently standing by the baseball fields of the York Recreation Complex.

“They put the trash cans out in front of it where it is now,” Mattingly said.

The veterans will ask York County for hospitality tax money to make up the cost difference. The city of York would maintain the park, which would also include a walkway and landscaping.

Pending any final decision from the Legislature, the veterans council also hopes to raise other money that could bring the plan to completion. Mattingly says the group will sell engraved bricks for the park’s walkway, and he’s trying to get a Go Fund Me page set up to collect donations.

“I haven’t heard a word from our Washington representatives,” Mattingly said. “The feds have got more money than anybody to throw around, but I guess we caught them at a bad time.”

While Sweet says the memorial can carry on in its current location if it has to, he’s still hopeful state money can be found to finish the project.

“I don’t think veterans should be at the bottom of the totem pole,” Sweet said.

This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Veterans hope state can pay to move York County memorial."