Veterans group gets $90,000 for monument, park in York

A proposal to move the York County Veterans Memorial to a prominent site in the county seat has received the financial support to begin moving foward.

State Sen. Creighton Coleman, D-Winnsboro, said the S.C. Legislature approved $90,000 for the memorial, at the discretion of the York County Veterans Advisory Council.

The council wants to move the 30-year-old memorial out of Lakeview Memory Gardens, a cemetery on U.S. 321 north of York, to a central site in downtown York.

The council’s plans call for moving both the county monument, which bears the names of 214 county residents killed in every conflict since World War I, and a Purple Heart Monument that stands at the York Recreation Complex.

“We should have a veterans park in our county seat,” said Doc Sweet, chairman of the advisory council. “We do have a lot of veterans events there. If we had some property there, we would probably do other things, too.”

Advisory council leaders said the group has two options. They are:

▪  Purchase about three acres on Garner and East Liberty streets, now owned by Norfolk Southern Railroad, in front of the Greater York Chamber of Commerce.

▪  Locate the monuments on county green space between the existing York County Courthouse and a new administrative building the county plans to build in downtown York.

J.J. Mattingly, treasurer of the veterans advisory council, said the panel is getting legal advice and will make a decision about which way to go.

He said the veterans panel has been talking with the railroad company about a purchase of its property. The county land would not need to be purchased, but he said the county administration building is at least two years away.

Mattingly has estimated the group needs about $130,000 to purchase land from the railway in downtown York and/or to develop a park. He said the cost of moving the monument has been estimated at around $2,000.

He is seeking additional funding for the project from the city of York, York County hospitality tax funding and a GoFundMe page where the group is seeking donations. He said only about $200 has been donated.

The advisory group decided to move the monument after the once family-owned cemetery where it stands was sold to a corporation. The new owner could not guarantee that the veterans group could hold its annual Memorial Day ceremony there, Sweet said.

“They actually said we could use it as long as they didn’t have something else going on, which is not satisfactory, because we put a lot of effort into putting on our ceremony each year,” Sweet said.

Mattingly said the veterans also use private property for the program that immediately follows its annual Veterans Day Parade in York. The ceremony has been held in the Whitesides Cleaners parking lot, he said, but the ownership of that property is uncertain.

“We wanted a place to call our own,” Mattingly said.

Coleman, the state senator, said state parks and recreation funding for the monument, obtained after the Legislature overrode Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto, will be available in mid to late September.

“It justified support,” Coleman said of the project. “The veterans, if you can’t help them, what they do and the sacrifices they’ve made, who can you help?”

Mattingly said a park owned by the veterans group in downtown York could be used by the community for other events. He said the park could include a permanent stage and open grassy space.

“They need a place in York where they can have concerts and can get together,” Mattingly said. The railroad property “would be an ideal location.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Veterans group gets $90,000 for monument, park in York."