Memorial wall addition delayed

The wall addition at the Clintonville Veterans Memorial is currently delayed as the city waits for a shipment of black granite from India in order for the project to be completed.

That was the message that Clintonville Public Works Director Justin Mc Auly gave the Public Works Committee at its Aug. 29 meeting.

Mc Auly told the committee that the delay is not due to the city or the project’s contractor. The black granite that is used for the wall comes from India, and the city is waiting for the shipment to arrive.

He added that the contractor said it used to take three months to receive the black granite, but now it is taking six to eight months.

“We haven’t paid for this yet, they will not send us a bill until after the project is done,” Mc Auly said.

The wall has already been prepped by Mathewson Monuments for the name inserts.

“They didn’t forget about us. They got everything done for when they arrive,” Mc Auly said.

Once Mathewson Monuments has received the black granite, it plans on etching the wall bricks and then engraving the roughly 50 prepaid names onto the wall.

Mathewson Monuments plans to install the wall bricks around Oct. 15 if everything goes as planned.

Mc Auly said the goal is to have the project completed by Veterans Day.

When the wall was originally built, Mc Auly said the area was filled with names of veterans within three years.

“I know there’s a lot of people who want to get names up, and they’re probably waiting until they see something put up, I have a feeling that will fill up in a couple of years,” Mc Auly said.

He added that once this wall addition is completed, the city should start developing a plan for the next wall addition.

Funding for projects like this is important, Mc Auly said, adding that a couple of donors gave almost $50,000 for the current wall addition project.

“That’s what helped this project happen,” Mc Auly said.