A committee to oversee the upkeep of the Starke County Veterans Memorial is starting to take shape. A permanently endowed fund was recently established at the Starke County Community Foundation to help fund the ongoing maintenance of the memorial monuments on the courthouse square.
A subcommittee will make recommendations to the Starke County Park Board about how that money should be used. The park board recently appointed Kathy Norem as its representative. She was part of the committee that oversaw the construction of the new Veterans Memorial Plaza last year. Norem will be joined by representatives from the Knox VFW and each of the county’s three American Legion posts.
She noted that there won’t be much money to spend or very many needs to spend it on right away, but the money will be there in the future. In the meantime, Norem said the larger project committee is still working on plans to order trees and create an updated display for the centuries-old cannons. Those items would be paid for from money left over in the non-permanent fund that was established for the Memorial Plaza’s construction.
During the Starke County Park Board’s annual reorganization, Richard Ballard was reelected president, Rik Ritzler was elected vice president, and Rosemary Rose was reelected secretary. The park board also agreed to reappoint Marty Lucas as its attorney, although Lucas pointed out that he’ll likely continue to be paid by the county commissioners, rather than the park board itself.
