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Cleveland: Bell makers visit future veterans memorial park site

By: Randall Higgins
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Tom Rowland

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A sunny corner next to a busy street will become the place where Cleveland remembers the nation’s and the community’s veterans.

Representatives from the Verdin Co. of Cincinnati, makers of bells, carillons and clocks, visited the site of the future veterans memorial park Tuesday with Mayor Tom Rowland and others.

“We are taking a dream one step closer to reality,” Mr. Rowland said.

Developers Stan Lawson and Tom Cate donated a corner of their Spring Creek development for the park. The site is near the intersection of 25th and Parker streets.

Jim McGraw, from Verdin, said plans are still in the conceptual stage. But local officials want a bell tower, similar to ones the same company has done at Lee University, and a flag display. A pedestrian path will connect to Lee’s park and a walking trail a few blocks away and eventually to the city’s greenway system.

“Those connections are still years away,” city engineer Brian Beck said.

Mr. Beck’s first task is to get exact measurements of the park site to Verdin. Then, Mr. McGraw said, the company can begin planning how to fill the space.

Mr. McGraw and his wife, Millie, said the company was commissioned by the state of Ohio for similar projects in each county for the state bicentennial. Verdin has been casting bells and making clocks since 1842.

Typically, a foundry on wheels comes to the site for a two-day project to cast the bell.

Veterans, or a family representative, are invited to cast an ingot into the foundry as a memorial, then the bell is cast. On day two, the mold is broken, usually by somebody in the community, then the bell is installed in its tower and rung for the first time.

“It becomes quite a community event,” Mrs. McGraw said.

Mr. Rowland said each of the nation’s military services will be represented on the tower.

“We thought it was natural to have a veterans park next to the Veterans Memorial Highway,” Mr. Rowland said.

The memorial highway was designated last year for the 25th Street and APD 40 loop around the city.

Local veterans groups will get involved in the project as park plans become more certain, said Larry McDaris, Bradley County veterans affairs officer. He and greenway board chairman Cameron Fisher joined the group at the site Tuesday.

The developers also have donated 20 trees to the project, each to be accompanied by a memorial marker sold as a fundraiser for the park.

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