Veterans Memorial lease OK’d

With a signed lease in hand, Nicole Wacek is delivering what will likely be the best holiday news for Owatonna area veterans and many others.
On Dec. 14, Wacek and Rhonda Guthier of the Moonlighter’s Exchange Club finalized a lease with the Steele County Board of Commissioners, paving the way for the organization to construct a Veteran’s Memorial in Owatonna. The memorial will be located on county property just south of the Steele County History Center and east of the picnic shelter along 18th Street by Austin Road.
“It was a wonderful Christmas present,” said Wacek. “This is absolutely awesome. If I wasn’t there by myself, I would have had a few tears of joy.”
Finding a home for the veterans memorial has been “a very, very long road,” Wacek said. The project had been in the works two years before Wacek joined the Exchange Club six years ago.
“People have waited so long to have this happen,” Wacek said, adding she herself had been beginning to wonder if it would ever get done.
In its quest to find a home for the memorial, the Exchange Club had been “shot down” by several avenues in Owatonna, Wacek said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around why smaller communities around us could do something and we couldn’t,” she said.
Wacek credited County Administrator Scott Golberg and County Attorney Daniel McIntosh, as well as the county commissioners, for working together to get this done in the end. “They were all on board with us,” she said.
With land in place, the focus will now turn to fundraising. Wacek said the Exchange Club will “hit the ground running” at its Jan. 10 meeting.
In all, the group needs to raise $1 million for the project, but Wacek said she realizes it will likely take a couple phases over several years to accomplish that. To start, the Exchange Club needs at least $250,000 to order the granite for the memorial. So far, the group has raised around $45,000, according to Wacek.
Wacek’s goal is to raise all the money needed within two years.
Construction is expected to begin in spring with hopes of completing the first phase by next fall. Wacek said Mike Pierce, who serves on the memorial committee, has some ideas in place for getting the memorial up and running.  
Unlike other memorials in the area, the Owatonna memorial will feature the U.S. Space Force, which is the space service branch founded two years ago.
Owatonna Veteran’s Memorial
To learn more or to donate:
 
www.owatonnaveteransmemorial.org