State Grant to Help with McCormick Park Veterans Memorial Expansion

McCormick Park Veterans Memorial wall with soldier names and U.S. flag

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3, 2023

St. Helens, Ore. The City of St. Helens has been awarded a $32,875 grant through the Oregon Parks & Recreation’s Veterans Memorial Grant Program. The grant will be used to expand the existing McCormick Park Veterans Memorial in St. Helens.

The grant will help fund an approximately 300-square-foot expansion to the Memorial, adding seven illuminated monuments with flags to honor the seven branches of the United States Armed Forces. The expansion will also include an ADA-accessible concrete walkway leading to the new monuments. Construction is anticipated to take approximately three months to complete and should be finished in time for the Memorial to host the 2023 Veterans Day ceremony.

The project includes matching funds of $28,130 through in-kind labor and donations. The in-kind match includes the donation of flags and hardware from the local VFW Post 1440, labor and equipment use from the St. Helens Public Works Department, engineering and design donated by Lower Columbia Engineering, LLC, and in-kind labor from City staff to manage the grant.

The McCormick Park Veterans Memorial Plaza was last expanded in 2018. The current Memorial honors Columbia County veterans from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and current conflicts in the Middle East. It includes six engraved granite slabs and brick veneer footings. The granite slabs include a short description of each military branch of service with their corresponding service seal. The existing U.S. flagpole was installed during the 2018 expansion and will remain in its current location, becoming the center of the seven new monuments and flags that are being built for the current project.

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For further information regarding the McCormick Park Veterans Memorial expansion, please contact Associate Planner/Community Development Project Manager Jenny Dimsho at jdimsho@sthelensoregon.gov.