Ground has been broken for Maplewood’s war veterans memorial in front of City Hall. In September 2016 city officials voted to reject all contractors’ bids for the proposed memorial because they were all too high. City Manager Marty Corcoran said at the time that the city asked the architect to talk to the lowest bidder about how the memorial could be redesigned to be built for less.
The cost approved by council resolution on August 8, 2017, was $150,000.
See also: Maplewood veterans memorial to go to bid
Here is some of the background on this. I had previously done a petition against it and followed this closely. Once approved I stopped voicing my concerns. I won’t be one of the veterans who is overly grateful for this expenditure. The way it was described to me was the memorial was a project the former mayor wanted to see get done. Probably took as long as it did because it has been a disaster budgeting.
January 2014 – Maplewood architectural firm of Hellmuth and Bicknese was selected.
https://40southnews.com/ryan-hummert-sculpture-veterans-memorial-new-fire-house-before-maplewood-council/
August 2014 – Four designs were presented to the city council. Memorial designs were first shown publicly and location was to be in front of city hall. The planned budget is set at $75,000 of the city budget.
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-officials-weigh-in-on-veterans-memorial/
August 2015 – Memorial returns to the public eye. Three revised options were presented to the council at the meeting and were estimated to cost less than the original. The original design featured a larger plaza and more landscaping as well as plans to replace the ponds with new ones but Bicknese estimated the cost could approach $140 thousand. The established budget during this time remains $75,000.
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-to-bid-two-veterans-memorials/
July 2016 – The architect comes back to the city council with a plan very similar to the original and estimates the cost to be $140,000. https://40southnews.com/maplewood-veterans-memorial-to-go-to-bid/#comment-55581
Tell us when was it approved, if it was rejected in 2016?
Good question.
What happened to the previous veterans’ memorial that existed? I would like to see that re-erected someday if it still exists somewhere.
There have been a couple. The first was the Maplewood Honor Roll at Big Bend and Manchester. Its location is unknown, rumors exist that it or parts of it are somewhere in the High School. I believe the city posses the plaque that used to by at Hummert Park. I suspect that will be reused here. Doug Miner, are there any design images available for the new one?
See links in my post for the small interval changes. Final product was never publicly shown from what I recall. It was supposed to be cheaper materials than original design but the cost never came down so who knows
It looks like the cost increased.
The veterans memorial was approved by council resolution on August 8, 2017, for $150,000.