After years of fundraising for the creation of their own Veterans Memorial to honor veterans, the City of Oakley unveiled its memorial on Tuesday.
The memorial is placed at City Park at the corner of Main Street and Norcross honoring all branches of the military.
More than 600 people attended the celebration including Congressman Jerry McNerney,
“I just get so inspired looking out and seeing how many people come out and show their support and appreciation for our veterans. We love our veterans, it’s as simple as that, what a change from 30-years ago,” said McNerney. “I bet everyone here is a veteran or has a family member that is a veteran. It’s incumbent on us to make sure the veterans have the care they need.”
Kevin Romick spoke Tuesday about the memorial and how it came about.
Shortly after World War 1 there was movement to create a victory highway filled with a memorial and a plaque. He explained that for whatever reason, just 6 were created and for Oakley one of those monuments were dedicated in 1926 at the corner of Main Street and Bridgehead.
He explained how the monument sat there for 50-years until CALTRANS came along and said a new bridge had to be built and during the construction process the eagle was moved—no one brought it back.
Summary of how the Memorial came about according to Kevin Romick:
- In 1999, the City of Oakley incorporates and looking for tradition.
- In 2007, City Hall is completed with the corner left empty for future monument. It was later told that Oakley had a missing monument. After a brief search, it was located at the Antioch fairgrounds. Councilmembers Anderson and Romick appealed to the fairgrounds directors and stated that monument belongs to Oakley. Their response was thank you very much, possession is 9/10th of the law and we will leave it here.
- The pursuit of a new memorial began with Nicholas Weizenbach, managing partner at the Oak View Memorial Cemetery. After discussion and input, the City Council approved it.
- The cost of the memorial was $70,000, Wings To Fly was the financial sponsor.
- Stonecrest Lending helped with fundraising efforts and raised $6,500
- It came time to build the memorial and the pillars weighed 3,000 lbs apiece and the foundation could not held them without cracking. With the help of Swisher Concrete Brothers, they Enthusiastically responded to our cries for help. That “yes” turned out to be a lot more expensive than they could have imaged. Romick stated that to show gratitude they added the “Platinum Level Sponsorship” to recognize the amount donated which was far in excess of $5,000.
- Romick also thanked Nancy Marquez for coordination and ensuring names were correct on all bricks.
- Bricks will soon be on sale again (estimated in a few weeks).
