Council agrees to workshop on veterans memorial after sustained public push

Members of local veterans’ groups pressed the City of Clermont on Sept. 23 to move forward with a long-discussed veterans and first-responders memorial linked to the Meet Me in the Middle park project. Speakers described personal ties to the Eighth Street pier and asked the council for a firm status update and a timetable to begin construction.

The appeals came during the public-comment period as multiple veterans and organizers — including Robert Mach, a retired Navy master chief who has been planning the city’s Veterans Day observance, and representatives of the VFW and American Legion — urged the council to advance the memorial. Kurt Shue and other veterans described past committee work and listed local service members they said the monument should honor.

City council members and staff said the memorial had been discussed in prior project planning and that the larger Meet Me in the Middle initiative contains multiple moving parts — docks, permitting, utilities and property access — that affect where and when a memorial could be built. Council members repeatedly said permitting for dock relocation and related site work remains a bottleneck.

To address the veterans’ request directly, the council directed staff to add a focused workshop item for the Veterans Memorial and the LiveWell amphitheater to the Oct. 21 workshop agenda. Council discussion emphasized breaking the larger Meet Me in the Middle master plan into smaller, actionable components so a veterans memorial or a portion of the park could be advanced independently of the full master plan’s timeline.

Council members also signaled willingness to discuss funding and phasing at the workshop and asked staff to provide clearer timelines for permitting and property-access questions (including a standing question about access through the DeJoints property that influences the site plan).

The veterans’ groups in the audience said they would attend the October session and asked the city to present a concrete schedule and funding options. City staff and council members said they would use the workshop to discuss whether the memorial should be incorporated into the Meet Me in the Middle footprint or sited elsewhere (for example, Victory Point) and to identify next steps if the memorial is to proceed sooner than other park components.

The council’s workshop direction stops short of committing construction money or picking a final site. Instead, it creates a formal opportunity for staff, veterans’ representatives and council members to identify requirements, timelines and funding paths so the city and stakeholders can make a coordinated decision.

Community members who spoke: Robert Mach (veteran and organizer), Kurt Shue (VFW representative), Jason Hunt (American Legion), Stanley Lay (VFW), Dwayne Orth (VFW commander), Mark Kolock (veteran and local business owner), Colin Cotterell (veteran). Council action: staff to place the Veterans Memorial and LiveWell Amphitheater on the Oct. 21 workshop agenda for focused review.