LEWISTON — The city will be responsible for regular maintenance of Veterans Memorial Park, but paying for long-term improvements and new monuments will be the job of the Lewiston-Auburn Veterans Council, according to a contract presented to city councilors Tuesday.
Councilors reviewed a maintenance agreement with the veterans group at their workshop meeting Tuesday night. The agreement spells out how the city and the veterans group are responsible for the park, which overlooks the Androscoggin River and the Great Falls opposite the Lincoln-Main streets intersection.
“It’s just time that we worked something out for this,” City Administrator Ed Barrett said. “We’ve been talking about putting something like this in writing for a while.”
Councilors are scheduled to vote on the agreement at their next meeting.
According to the agreement, the veterans council is in charge of paying for new monuments and getting them installed in the park and must get written approval from the city for new installations.
The city will continue regular maintenance, including mowing in the summer and basic repairs.
The agreement also requires the veterans group to carry insurance for workers installing new monuments and displays and holds the city harmless for any injuries that might occur.
The city also agrees to notify the veterans’ group of any development plans for nearby properties.
“That’s an important part because we hope to be doing some work along there and we want it to be clear how those (projects) could affect them,” Barrett said.
The city and the veterans’ group agreed to make the park on the Lewiston side of Longley Bridge the home for memorials for veterans beginning in 2003. Memorials in the park are designed to honor those who have served in the U.S. military, including the National Guard, during peacetime or war.
The park includes stone monuments with names of veterans dating back to the Revolutionary War. So far, the council has installed 20 stone tablets containing the names of 4,365 veterans. Other displays include a 5-inch, 51-caliber battleship gun that had stood outside Brunswick Naval Air Station’s chapel until last fall.
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