Grovetown park will honor military

Grovetown officials announced at Monday's city council meeting the city's plans to construct a memorial park commemorating Columbia County service men and women that will feature a Howizter military cannon on display.

Mayor Dennis Trudeau said Recreation Department employees were to be headed to Alabama Thursday and Friday to pick up the Howitzer, which cost the city $267.13.

The overall cost for the park is estimated at between $80,000 and $100,000. An exact time frame for when the work would begin hasn't been set yet as city officials are awaiting the possibility of state grant funds, said Shirley Beasley, the city clerk.

"We've been after that for a year and a half," Trudeau said of the cannon that will be taken directly to Fort Gordon. "...It has got to be demilitarized."

The park is planned for the corner of Old Wrightsboro Road and East Robinson Avenue, between the Grovetown Museum and picnic shelter and the gazebo.

To commemorate the large military presence in Grovetown and Columbia County and all Columbia County residents who served the military, the park will feature a double-sided serpentine granite wall inscribed with the names of all Columbia County service men and women listed under the insignia of their military service branch, Trudeau said.

"If space allows, we'll go back to the Civil War and take all those names, too," City Councilman Bruce Stoddard said.

The wall will be surrounded by stone pavers and will be connected by short walkways to the picnic shelter, gazebo and city hall parking lot.

"We'll be selling paver bricks with people's names and service dates and all that stuff on them," Stoddard said. "It's going to be a nice little place."

The paver bricks can be purchased by anyone for themselves or in memory of someone else.

Also at the meeting, the city council approved the second reading of an ordinance allowing by-the-drink alcohol sales between 1 and 11 p.m. on Sunday. City Attorney Brendan Fleming said the ordinance went into effect Tuesday morning after its approval by the council.

Area attorney John Flythe also was appointed and approved to replace John Markwalter as the city's associate judge. Markwalter left at the beginning of the year.