Mansfield breaks ground on Veterans Memorial

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Mansfield broke ground on a new Veterans Memorial on Monday morning, defying threatening showers and a proposition that was turned down by voters.

The memorial will be part of $6.5 million of updates and renovations to Julian Feild Park at 1531 E. Broad St., which will include new bathrooms, landscaping, a pavilion, event plaza, reflecting pond with bridge and a veterans memorial.

“The pavilion will be in an octagon shape, mirroring Mansfield’s Memorial Hall, which was built in 1918,” said Ann Beck, Parks and Recreation Marketing and Communications Manager. “The memorial plaza will be in a similar style with an open pavilion with each of the pylons for each branch of the military.”

“We hope to start construction in December,” Beck said. “It’s a 12-month construction project, depending on the weather. We would love to have the grand open on Veterans Day next year.”

The Serenity Garden, also located inside Julian Feild Park, will stay, but be “refreshed and realigned,” Beck said. Personalized bricks that were purchased for Serenity Park will also be staying, she said.

In May 2022, Mansfield voters turned down a proposed $7 million veterans park, voting 55 percent against the proposition. By law, cities cannot bring a proposition back to the voters within three years, but the city made some changes to the park plan and decided not to use tax dollars to fund the memorial park.

“The law says we have to wait three years after a proposition fails if we intend to issue certificates of obligation,” City Manager Joe Smolinski said. “This is a scaled-down version of the proposition and we’re not issuing certificates of obligation. There will be no tax increase.”

Instead, the city will use funds from Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 1 to finance the park. A TIRZ is when the city sets aside a portion of the property tax dollar increases from a certain area to pay for capital improvements in that area.

Tim Milligan is chairman of the Mansfield Veterans Memorial and Tribute Foundation, which has been working to build the veterans park since 2019.

“A veterans park is about paying tribute to those who served our country,” said Milligan, a former U.S. Army major. “Some of us were fortunate enough to serve and come home. Some were not. This is a day that we can reflect on a lot of hard work. It’s certainly worth it for the sacrifice of those who went before us.”

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