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Statue Design OK'd For Park

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By GEORGE WILKENS gwilkens@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 17, 2008

PLANT CITY - The artist and his patriotic design favored by the committee spearheading Veterans Memorial Park have received the Plant City Commission's blessing.

At their Dec. 8 meeting, commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution approving the "Freedom Rising" design by Duane Scott of Sarasota.

Scott was one of a dozen artists who responded to the committee's invitation for proposals, and one of seven whose design reached the semifinal selection stage. Appropriately, the committee selected Scott's design at their meeting on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

"Our art will be an original," Jennifer Closshey, chairwoman of the Plant City Armed Forces Memorial Foundation, said during her presentation to commissioners.

The design, which is intended to honor veterans of all branches of the military, features an 8-foot-tall bronze bald eagle with outstretched wings. The work will sit atop a 6-foot-high granite base, Closshey explained. The eagle's talons clutch a partially unfurled American flag.

The statue is the centerpiece of a revamping of Courier Field, a city park at Wheeler and Herring streets, just north of Bruton Memorial Library. The project is to include a gazebo, gardens, trees, 8-foot-wide sidewalks with brick accents and a gathering area for 350 people.

The memorial can be completed within six months of signing the contract with the artist, Closshey said. The committee hopes to dedicate the memorial on Veterans Day 2009.

Closshey said Scott will begin his work in clay. Committee members will review his progress and have the opportunity for final approval before his creation goes to a foundry to be cast in bronze.

Provided with those safeguards and renderings of the proposed work, placement of the work was approved by commissioners without discussion.

"It's our pleasure to be doing this for the community," Closshey said on behalf of the citizen committee she heads. The finished work will provide "an amazing transformation of that field."

TO HELP

To volunteer, contact Cassandra Banning, (813) 759-1638.

To donate, mail a check payable to the Plant City Armed Forces Memorial Foundation to Joe Sedita, Joseph Sedita & Co., CPAs, 104 N. Evers St., Plant City FL 33563, or drop it off at the Plant City Photo Archives, 119 N. Collins St., in downtown.

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433.

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