Work on memorial continues

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Local veteran Duke Ottema continues to work on establishing funds and committees to build a veterans memorial
honoring the community’s past and present veterans, with the help of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the local American Legion. 
Duke served three years in Germany beginning in 1975 when he joined the Army patrolling the borders. Roughly four years ago he joined the local American Legion chapter, becoming more involved with both the legion and the VFW over the years. The veterans memorial is his latest project, beginning the work to determine a location and allocate funds earlier this year. 
“We have a meeting on the 21st and at this meeting we will decide where we are going to put the memorial. We have three spots we are looking at,” Ottema said, adding that those locations are north of Pinnacle Bank, in Washington Park near Loaf and Jug and in Centennial Park. “We are putting it to a vote so we should have an official location the night of the 21st.” 
Prior to determining potential locations, Ottema worked with others in the veteran community to establish the Newcastle Wyoming Veterans Memorial Fund as a non-profit 501(c)3.
“We have accomplished that and can now accept donations. We plan on hitting that hot and heavy after the next meeting by getting our people out in the community,” Ottema said, noting that Justin Tystad, president at Pinnacle Bank, has offered his time and effort to help apply and secure grants for the project and that the Crabtrees with Whirlwind Services and Hurricane Services have offered to donate time and equipment for the project.
“We are asking others in the community to get involved,” Ottema said. “We are just getting going and the experience has been positive so far. We waited all summer to get that 501(c)3 and now that we have that we can finally get going.” 
Ottema said that he really hopes that the community, both civilian and military, will come together to help move the memorial project forward. 
Prior to completing a new, eye-catching memorial, Ottema said he and others in his group plan to redo the memorial currently at the Greenwood Cemetery. 
“We want to go and redo that site up there. We want to do a new flag pole and other stuff to dress the area up a bit,” Ottema said. “We want to do this to let the people of Newcastle know that we are serious.” 
He noted that they have the blessing of Mayor Deb Piana and Newcastle City Council and plan to develop plans for the improvements soon. 
“Our goal is to get the improvements done at the cemetery done by Memorial Day of next year for the ceremony,” Ottema said. 
Meetings to plan and discuss the veterans memorial are held the third Thursday of every month in the Michael’s Room at the Weston County Senior Center at 6 p.m.