A local veteran is pursuing his 35-year dream of establishing a Veterans Memorial in downtown Winnfield to honor Winn Parish vets, both fallen and returned, who fought and served to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today.
That dream could be within reach, Michael Durbin said during the Sheriff’s Office Veterans Day lunch and again at the November meeting of the City Council when he said Steve and Gail Shelton have offered a 20-year lease on the site of the old U.B. Carpenter building on Main Street for $100 annually. A search through the years for other locations has been fruitless.
It’s a simple, open-air design, he says. Anyone can walk off the sidewalk into a three-walled recess with no roof overhead “so God’s sunlight and fresh air can pour in,” the monument and flagpole at the center and benches against the walls. “You can just sit, reflect and remember, thinking of what these men and women have given so that we can live in the safety we enjoy. I’d like to imagine that teachers might bring their classes to the monument to better explain the role of our servicemen. Our veterans deserve this. They’ve earned it. It’s the right thing to do.”
Durbin pointed out that when the Flag Park by the Farmers Market was created, initial plans were to expand its scope into becoming the Veterans Memorial he and fellow veterans had envisioned. Fundraising efforts were launched but at some point that impetus was lost and the site remained just a Flag Park. Efforts to recapture that initial plan have fallen short.
The Community Recreation Board on which Durbin serves has worked grants through the years to make improvements on parks throughout the community “as a priority to put kids first,” he said. “Yet all this time I’ve been telling the members that we need this memorial. Now that we’re nearing completion on these other projects, I feel the time to act is here.”
“When a man or woman becomes a soldier,” explains Durbin who himself served in the U.S. Army, then in the National Guard, “they don’t really understand what they’re becoming. It’s when they begin their training that they start to understand what the American flag means. They understand the people who came before them who have walked in their shoes and fought for this freedom we may actually take for granted.”
When brought before the City Council, member Teresa Phillips asked about earlier discussion of using the Mini-Park for the memorial site. Durbin responded that sinkholes at the Mini-Park make it unsuitable and “we’re not looking for another park…this needs to be a memorial for the vets who did not get to come home and for those who did come back and also for those still out there putting their lives on the line so we can sit here having this conversation.”
Member Matt Miller raised questions on the plans and costs. Durbin agreed that this is still a work in progress but asked that this site opportunity be taken. Miller made a motion that the matter be tabled, awaiting additional information. The Council agreed.
