This rendering show the planned veterans plaza for Brunswick’s downtown mall. (Contributed image)

Brunswick — Initial plans for the Veterans Day unveiling of a new Veterans Plaza in Brunswick have been pushed back. The Brunswick American Legion George T Files Post 20 now says it won’t be seeking requests for bids on the project until next January, with the unveiling in November 2020. 

“The Committee’s unwavering interest to ensure the proposed Veterans Plaza will be a legacy project for Brunswick is impressive,” said Todd Richardson of Richardson and Associates, the architects of the plaza, in a news release from the legion. “We feel that unforeseen market forces in the construction industry in association with the advantages time brings to securing the right contractor, and defining a more favorable installation schedule are sound reasons for this decision.” 

The legion states that a worker shortage and lack of certain materials were to blame for “shifts in the construction industry,” delaying the project by six months. 

The plaza is designed to honor veterans of all branches of the military and the Merchant Marines. It will be located on the mall in downtown Brunswick, an expansion on the site that will include the current Veterans Monument. 

Included in the plaza will be 320 granite honor blocks that people can adopt to permanently honor veterans by engraving the name of their honoree, their branch of service, the conflict in which they were engaged or the years they served.
The Brunswick Town Council and the Village Review Board have already provided formal approval for the project. 

Meanwhile, the Veterans Plaza Organizing Committee says it is 59% toward its $250,000 goal of meeting the construction costs of the proposed Veterans Plaza in downtown Brunswick. 

Funds have been raised through commitments of $105,000 in grants, and the sponsorship for 173 of the 320 Honor Blocks for an additional $43,250, according to the legion. 

“Enthusiasm for this project has been tremendous, and grows each week as the project becomes better known,” said David Watson, the commander of American Legion Post 20, the fiscal agent for the Plaza, in a news release “People have embraced the message, the design and the fact that it will have such a prominent place in a town that serves as the gateway to Midcoast Maine.”