July 17, 2023 3:40 a.m.
The Douglas County Commissioners have announced that the county has been awarded an Oregon Heritage – Veterans and War Memorial grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to renovate the fifty two-year old Douglas County War Memorial, located at the courthouse in Roseburg.
A County release said the grant, in the amount of $58,919, requires a twenty percent match in funding/donations. It will come from the county, the local veteran’s community, military organizations and in-kind donations. The total renovation project is expected to begin this summer and is projected to take about a year to complete. The total cost of the renovation is estimated at $80,000.
Douglas County Government, via the Board of Commissioners, are partnering with the Douglas County Veterans Forum and the Douglas County Veteran’s Advisory Committee to facilitate the renovation project. The project includes refurbishing and updating the aging memorial grounds, base, concrete and wall, adding a new Purple Heart Memorial, and adding new bronze gold star and blue star plaques. Also, to be added are two new flag poles to the front of the courthouse in order to properly display the United States, Oregon, and POW/MIA flags and beautifying the grounds around the memorial.
The memorial was originally built in 1971 to honorably display a list of the county’s casualties of war. Over the years, the memorial has been added to with plaques containing names of fallen wartime individuals and new battles and conflicts. It underwent a small restoration project in 2007, but several repair items were not able to be completed due to budget constraints. The release said the memorial has experienced continued disrepair, deterioration and erosion from the elements over the years that desperately need to be addressed.
The Oregon Heritage – Veterans and War Memorial Grant is one of a variety of $13 million in grants offered annually by OPRD to support outdoor recreation, historic preservation, conservation and more. The grant is available to local governments for building and restoring veteran’s and war memorials.