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Veterans memorial park funds delayed

Brunswick News - 10/10/2017

Oct. 10--Architecture and engineering work on a proposed veterans memorial park hit a snag when a clerical error left the item out of the Glynn County Commission's agenda last week.

Planned for the empty lot between I and J streets in downtown Brunswick, it was recommended for approval by the county's finance committee ahead of the county commission's meeting last week. While most of the items the finance committee approved made it onto the commission's consent agenda, the veterans memorial park was absent.

Currently it is not on the agenda for a special called meeting on Oct. 17, but will likely be on the agenda for the county commission's Oct. 19 meeting, according to county officials.

Once the spending is approved, the real work will begin.

"The process is in a serious high gear now. We've been meeting for the last year or so, getting ideas of what's going in the park," said Mike Browning, Glynn County commissioner and a U.S. Army veteran.

Browning and eight other local veterans, including County Commissioner Bob Coleman and Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey, sat on a committee, which worked on the general design and funding source for the park. The park was included on the list of projects for the 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, with $1.5 million set aside for it.

Browning said most of the committee's time was spent getting a consensus on the design, but without too many specifics.

The general plan was for the park to include a memorial honoring each military branch, but the committee didn't decide exactly what it should look like.

Tunnell Spangler Walsh & Associates, a firm out of Atlanta, was selected as the winning bidder at $126,050. Once a contract for the architecture services is approved, the company will draw up concepts of the memorial and park. Browning said he expects it to take three or more meetings for the firm to come to a final design.

"We've given them the info of what we want generally. They'll draw concepts and bring them back and the committee will look a them," Browning said.

The general plan is to have a memorial on one end of park, raised up slightly from the rest of it. They want enough space on the semicircular raised area for bands to perform, or speakers to give addresses. Browning also said the committee want a border of foliage on J Street and Reynolds Street to shield the neighboring residential areas.

"It's going to be a park with an emphasis on the veterans and their service to the country," Browning said. "It will honor everyone in the community that served this county."

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