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Wellington board finalizes Veterans Garden design, sets fundraising and phased build plan
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Summary
At its April 8 meeting, Wellington’s Parks & Recreation advisory group and local veterans reviewed and largely finalized the Veterans Garden design at Wellington Community Park and agreed to develop fundraising tiers, pricing for phased construction, and a potential Veterans Day fundraising kickoff.
Members of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board and veterans’ representatives reviewed a near-final design for the Veterans Garden at Wellington Community Park and agreed to move into a fundraising and pricing phase aimed at completing the project in phases.
The board’s chair, Eric Kinchel, said the group has a clear design direction but still needs to raise money. "We just need to find some money," he said, urging development of tiered donor opportunities for benches, flagpoles, panels and other features.
Board members and veterans discussed specific design choices, including perimeter panels to represent service branches, backlit metal panels, a central flag display, bench dedications, a fire pit location, and a living hedge backdrop. Jesse Roper, a board member, recommended organizing a professional donor packet and rolling out fundraising near Veterans Day: "I would like to see us roll out fundraising around Veterans Day," he said during the meeting.
Staff and community presenters described a phased approach: an initial phase to install conduits, irrigation and basic site utilities, followed by hardscapes, flags, panels and landscape plantings. The board favored a tiered fundraising model where donors could sponsor specific pieces (for example, a bench or a flagpole) and discussed creating a packet modeled on prior successful campaigns.
Participants also debated the criteria for name inscriptions and the park’s memorial character. Veterans emphasized recognizing Wellington residents who served, while staff recommended keeping the Garden a "living" memorial with plantings and interpretive elements rather than a purely static monument.
Practical items flagged for immediate follow-up included: obtaining detailed cost estimates for each project phase, developing donor tiers and a fundraising packet, and scheduling a focused work session to finalize pricing before broad public solicitation. Staff said they would bring pricing and tier proposals back to the group for review.
The board also discussed volunteer assistance for non-electrical site work (such as trenching for conduit and irrigation) subject to waivers and safety requirements, and agreed to engage local partners to support fundraising and fabrication.
Next steps: staff to obtain phase-by-phase estimates and produce a donor packet; the board to review pricing and consider a fundraising kickoff tied to Veterans Day.
