Veterans who have dreamed of creating memorials in their hometowns in honor of men and women who have served their countries since the Civil War got good news this weekend.

In Weathersfield, veterans have been holding barbeques and auctions to raise funds for a memorial. They were far short of their goal, until word came from the office of Sen. Bernard Sanders that funds were theirs, although Bob Dickinson said he hadn't received formal notice of the grant.

"All of us have come to associate Memorial Day with barbeques and parades, but we should keep in mind that the true purpose of this solemn occasion is to honor those men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country," Sanders said during a ceremony in Derby, announcing the funding.

Sanders announced he had been able to secure $237,000 in funding for memorials in four towns: $80,000 for Bennington, $67,500 for Derby, $45,900 for Weathersfield and $44,000 for Concord.


"From our earliest days as a state, brave Vermonters have answered their country's call to duty knowing that they would be putting their lives on the line," the senator added.

"We remember and honor all those who have given their lives from the Revolutionary War to the present day," he said.

In Weathersfield, Dickinson said that his town has been working for years on the memorial, and it has raised $12,000, and gotten thousands of dollars of donated labor and materials lined up.

A landowner, who owns the site of a former granite quarry in Ascutney, offered already-mined granite slabs to the Weathersfield Memorial Committee, he said.

An Ascutney construction company offered to fetch the enormous granite slabs out of the woods for free. Other companies or individuals have agreed to truck the slab to Barre for free, where it will be cut to size.

An Ascutney stone artist has agreed to cut the names into the stone for a bargain rate, Dickinson said.

The only real impediment to the project, Dickinson said, was that the committee had yet to nail down a location for the memorial.

The committee wants to put the memorial on the Perkinsville Green, and the Perkinsville Community Church, which maintains the common, wants it there too, he said.

The problem is no one knows for sure who owns the common, he said.

"That is the big question," he said. "It's an ideal location."

read the full story in the Rutland Herald