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SIGN OF THE TIMES: OHIO VETERANS' MONUMENT LOSES
TO BUDGET BATTLE -- The Butler County Soldiers,
Sailors
and Pioneers Monument will cease daily operation.
Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers Monument
Butler County, Ohio
All "Sign of the Times" articles here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/signofthetimes.htm
Story here...
http://news.cincinnat
i.com/article/20090223/NEWS01/902230374
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-------------------------
Soldiers lose budget battle
Butler Co. memorial site will close daily operation
By Amber Ellis
HAMILTON - Each piece of history inside the Butler County Soldiers,
Sailors and Pioneers Monument means something to someone.
There's the emotional letter a platoon leader wrote to parents who lost
their son in the Korean War.
There are thousands of names of Butler County war veterans and early
pioneers inscribed in the marble walls.
There are faded photos, aged newspaper articles, weapons, uniforms and
medals of honor - all representing memories of times past and service
given.
That's why it's so difficult to grasp why the memorial is shutting down
its daily operation, said Ron Jones, a Vietnam veteran who has been a
curator there for the past two years.
After March 6, the monument topped by a 14-foot-tall statue overlooking
the Great Miami River will be open only for special events and by
appointment.
The building at High Street and Memorial Avenue - one of the most notable
features of downtown Hamilton - has become the latest casualty in Butler
County's budget battles.
As county commissioners hunted for ways to cover a multimillion-dollar
revenue shortfall, dozens of county workers learned this month that they'd
soon be out of work - including two part-time curators who give tours of
the monument.
"This is an icon in Butler County. You'd think that if nothing else was
safe, this place would be," Jones said.
His partner, Don Shollenbarger, also a Vietnam vet from Hamilton, has
worked the desk for eight years.
"It's just a shame," Jones said, "to deny the public access, it really
is."
Since news spread about the monument's closing, local veterans have been
asking questions about why a place that honors them, and everyone who
served before them, will close.
County Administrator Tim Williams said the county's financial troubles
forced them to cut back in places they hadn't imagined.
Even though the cost to operate the memorial is minimal, Williams said,
"We had to put it in context of what we're facing. We didn't have any
other choice."
The century-old building was dedicated in 1906. It was extensively
renovated in the 1980s.
 Most
times, the monument is relatively empty.
A good day, curators said, will bring about 10 to 15 people.
But those days don't come often. On Wednesday afternoon, the visitors log
indicated no one had been there earlier that week. Just more than a dozen
people stopped in Saturday, what they thought was the monument's final day
of regular business.
In the 1990s, the soldier's monument became somewhat of a popular tourist
venue, bringing in about 35 visitors a day.
Holidays that honor soldiers tend to attract more people.
The Fourth of July, for example, brought in 800 visitors last year.
Most foot traffic comes from Cub Scouts, school trips and other tour
groups. Every once in a while, someone will wander inside by chance or a
person will ask for help tracing an ancestor's military past.
To set up a tour, call 513-867-5823 or go to
www.butlercountyohio.org/monument/.
Additional Facts About the monument
The Butler County Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers Monument was dedicated in
1906 at the site of Fort Hamilton, a frontier outpost that was built in
the 1790s and named after Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the
Treasury.
The statue atop the building weighs 3,500 pounds and is 14 feet tall. The
figure, created by Hamilton resident Rudolph Thiem, shows a triumphant
Civil War soldier, nicknamed "Billy Yank," with his foot atop a shell and
waving his cap as a sign of victory.
Large stained glass windows portray nurses helping soldiers during the
Civil War.
The building has thousands of names of early Butler County war veterans
inscribed in its marble walls. Many others, including those who fought in
the current war - are kept in a computer database.
Uniforms, weapons, flags and other military memorabilia fill most of the
open space of the monument.
The memorial was built using $71,000 from a tax levy Butler County voters
approved after the Civil War.
New life was injected into the building after it underwent renovations in
the late 1980s.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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