Community Working Together to Restore Veterans Memorial – Press Release 9/2/2003

This is part of an occasional series by the Sanpete Country Travel and Utah Heritage Highway 89 Alliance on the people and places along U.S. Highway 89.

Community Working Together to Restore Veterans Memorial

“The monument is in a state of disrepair,” says Sally East, Sanpete County’s Economic Development Director. “The Travel and Heritage Council has gotten involved in this restoration effort as a way to acknowledge the important role veterans played in the development of Sanpete County.”

The project is being overseen by a committee of more than 20 local residents, along with representatives of the aforementioned organizations. “The monument sits right on the corner of U.S. Highway 89 and Main Street in Mt. Pleasant, making it an important historical site along the northern end of U.S. Highway 89,” says Monte Bona, a member of the highway alliance.

The preservation and restoration effort will include restoring the names of veterans currently listed, adding more names, and searching for names that were lost due to deterioration or were removed from the monument over the years, Bona says. Mt. Pleasant Mayor Chesley Christensen and Edith Sparks will head the effort to research the names of local veterans. The Mt. Pleasant newspaper, The Pyramid, is also providing assistance by running enlarged photographs of names on the monument in hopes of tracking down family members.

“We are hoping that relatives of those who served will see the names of their family members and contact us. We’re also relying on the community to let us know of the names of people who served that may be missing from the memorial,” Bona says.

Part of the restoration effort includes fund raising. The committee will be applying for grants to assist in the $50,000 project and is hoping to collect small contributions from family members of veterans. “This is truly a community project, one that honors the past and helps unite us for the future,” Bona says.