WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Warner Robins Council has now formed a board to help create a Vietnam Veterans Memorial in town, and voted to ask for an outside review of the funds for the project.
Here is where things stand now...
Mayor LaRhonda Patrick appointed nine board members. Together, they will work with the city and oversee the Vietnam Veterans Memorial project.
Rich McKee served in the Air Force for 21 years.
"I flew C130s and dropped bombs in Vietnam, and moved supplies all around," said McKee.
He's retired now and officially one of the Vietnam veterans on the city's new Veterans' Issue Board.
"I'm just delighted that somebody has finally taken action and gone forward," said McKee.
At Monday night's meeting, community members and council members asked questions about funds for the memorial, so council voted for an outside review.
City clerk Mandy Stella explains what's next.
"The next step will be for our purchasing office to go through that process of bidding out for a company to come in and do a review of those budget lines for these particular projects to see how much money is available, what's already been spent, and how we move forward from here," said Stella.
"They needed to do that, because as I said, they were drawing up plans for the Welcome Center and the memorial itself, yet they had no idea where they were putting it, or what the land around it would look like. It didn't make any sense to me that they had the cart before the horse," said McKee.
Stella says, right now, the city does not own land for the project, but they are in the middle of negotiating with the owners.
The possible site would be near I-75 and Buc-ees. Stella says they hope to buy land sometime in the very near future.
Mayor Patrick's goal is to double the current board by adding nine more members for sub-committees. Two weeks ago, council tabled the board.
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