About 100 people gathered Tuesday for the long-awaited opening of the Plainfield Veteran's Center.
Mayor Adrian O. Mapp welcomed the veterans and guests.
"Welcome Home, Heroes and Sheroes"
The center, which is part of The Monarch building at 400 East Front Street, has its own way sign.
Mayor Mapp invites attendees to enter.
High above the crowd, a flag flies from an aerial bucket.
A red carpet leads to the entry.
Police officers stand guard.
.Inside at last! The veterans were meeting in the senior center next door but now have their own place with their own key. Mayor Mapp and post commanders signed a $1-a-year lease. The commanders received a large commemorative key to the room. They were presented with an American flag donated by Veronica Lewis, who had received it after her brother, Alexander Belin, died in the invasion of Normandy Beach.
Asked what he thinks of the new meeting place, "Love it!" said Commander Cornell Hawkins of Johnson Jeter American Legion Post 219. His group meets on the second Tuesday of every month.
Commander Herbert Goines of VFW Post 7474 called having their own center "a big difference." The post meets on the second Friday of each month.
The veterans' center was promised in 2006 as part of a $15 million project which included a new senior center and 63 condos on three upper floors. Among dignitaries Tuesday was former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who said when introduced, "We did this - finally!"
--Bernice
"We did this- finally!" ???? Damn...she has a set as big as church bells...
ReplyDelete"We"? Wasn't she the mayor the mayor all that time? And while she spent all that tax money on food and goodies for her friends, and left the city finances in a real mess, the vets pleaded to no avail for the center that was promised to them in 2006! And now she says "we did it"--lord have mercy!
ReplyDeleteToo bad Lamar Mackson Sr. wasn't there.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time.
Sharon is still a joke. If not for Jerry she still would be unemployable. Why couldn't she get this done. We've found out that most things didn't get done for eight years. I wouldn't ask her to fun a church bake sale she's so inept. What nerve!
ReplyDelete