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The Plant City Courier & Tribune
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'Freedom Rising' Set In Stone
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Published: November 19, 2008
PLANT CITY - This time next year, Courier Field should be home to a monument to all veterans surrounded by landscaping and other amenities.
A committee overseeing a proposed memorial voted on Veterans Day to select a design featuring an eagle with outstretched wings.
The eagle will top a pedestal as part of a monument to all veterans and all five branches of service: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy. The monument is the centerpiece of plans to revamp Courier Field to include a gazebo, gardens, trees, gathering area for 350 people and more.
The look of the park, including 8-foot-wide sidewalks with brick accents, will have the "feel of the Plant City historic district," said Jennifer Closshey, chairwoman of the veterans monument committee.
About a dozen members of the committee selected the eagle design, titled "Freedom Rising," from about a half-dozen choices. Closshey said it was her favorite as well.
"It was so breathtaking. I was mesmerized by it," she said.
One committee member, Bill Carr, said he would have preferred a different selection for the monument, but he agreed it was a "beautiful" design.
Closshey said it was fitting that the group would meet on Veterans Day to decide details of the project. She hopes the memorial can be dedicated on Veterans Day 2009.
The veterans project will be built in phases at Courier Field, a city park at Wheeler and Herring streets, just north of Bruton Memorial Library.
City commissioners will consider plans for the park at their next meeting on Dec. 8. If the commissioners give their approval, work would start in January or February.
The monument was considered for other locations, including the parking lot of City Hall, before supporters settled on Courier Field.
Fundraising for the memorial continues, Closshey said.
"Now that we have it, we need to pay for it," she said.
Closshey said the Nov. 11 decision was an important one.
"We have made history here."
Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 865-4432.
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