After five years of dedicated volunteer work from Weathersfield citizens and concerned people of the community, we have finally turned the corner and the Weathersfield Veterans Memorial Monument is soon to be a reality! The effort has been a lengthy process with the following highlights:

Donations of cash from Weathersfield residents, the Chittenden Bank and the Claremont Savings Bank;
Donations of services and items from residents and local businesses that are committed to the success of this effort; Dozens of funds raising events such as auctions, BBQs, mum sales, and the like; More than 50 meetings and the preparation of grant requests, easements, agreements, designs and proposals.

It's been a long journey that began in 2004. The key event occurred on May 25, 2009 when Senator Sanders announced the award of a $45,900 grant for the construction of a Weathersfield Veterans Monument. With this grant, in combination with the $10,000 already collected over the years, Weathersfield could go forward with implementing the monument construction plan that essentially has not changed all these years. This plan has been addressed in the Weathersfield Annual Report every year since 2004.

A few months ago, the plan started with some "heavy lifting". Weathersfield resident Dan Barbour provided a skidder to remove nine huge blocks of granite donated by Herm and Cheryl McDerment. The granite was located on the southern slope of Mt Ascutney on the McDerment's property. With the volunteered support of Aaron Fitzherbert, owner of Tribute Artistry, LLC (the firm selected by the Weathersfield Select Board to do the final shaping of the monument) and Dan Barbour, the blocks were safely skidded over a mile to the banks of Thrasher Road where they remained until now.

On February 2nd Gurney Brothers Construction donated a tractor with trailer to transport the granite blocks to Barre, VT for the initial cutting. With the help of the Weathersfield Highway Department and the Town's bucket loader, the blocks were carefully loaded for the trip north to the cutters.

The blocks arrived safely and were offloaded at Colombo Stoneworks in Barre Vermont where they will be rough cut and returned to Tribute Artistry Ascutney in a few weeks.

Aaron Fitzherbert, Tribute Artistry, LLC will work through the winter to complete the detailed stonework and the finished monument will be placed on the Perkinsville Green in conjunction with a Town-wide dedication ceremony sometime in 2010.

The Weathersfield Veterans Memorial Committee is very pleased that with the help of so many and after years of keeping our collective shoulders into this most meaningful project, soon we will have a monument to recognize the service of all Weathersfield veterans from W