Two new monuments were dedicated in downtown Roodhouse during that town’s Veteran’s Day ceremony this morning.
It’s been almost fifteen years since Roodhouse added any new names of Greene County men and women who served in wars. This morning, Roodhouse mayor Tom Martin dedicated the monuments that add to the over 2-thousand veterans all the way back to the Civil War that are on the current monument on the downtown square.
Roodhouse Park Board member Dick Roodhouse says over $7,000 was raised for the new monuments. He says the labor was donated.
“The Penny brothers from Jacksonville, Copper Coin Construction, came to us and said ‘We understand you need some help on the concrete,’ and we said yes, and he came down and looked at it and said, ‘Yeah, we can do that,’” says Roodhouse. I asked what’s it going to cost, and he said, ‘Ain’t gonna cost you a dime. We’re gonna donate our labor.’”
Reporter: “Should have said it won’t cost you a penny.”
Roodhouse: “Yeah, a penny! They came down on Labor Day.”
Roodhouse says the word was put out in July to see if any veteran or family of a veteran was interested in getting their name added to the new monument. He says there’s still plenty of room for more in the future.
“That’s where this all started, that we didn’t have any more room for the names, so we put these two monuments up, got the money donated for the monuments, and they’re going to come down every two years for the next two years and update them,” he says.