A fundraising campaign has been launched to build a new monument honoring Franklin residents who served in World War II and the Korean War.
“We did the Vietnam War monument and the law enforcement and firefighters monument,” said Bob Bowen, a member of the non-profit Commission to Remember Our Heroes. “It was time to do this one.”
The deteriorated brick monument now standing along Liberty Street in front of Fountain Park will be removed, and a new granite monument will be installed in Bandstand Park.
While there are no records indicating when the current monument was built, the construction date was “just a few years after World War II,” said Bowen.
In 1964, the Franklin Jaycees led an effort to restore the triple-sided monument and added Korean War veterans from Franklin to the listing.
In February 2017, the commission asked Franklin City Council to allow it to replace the monument. Council agreed and transferred ownership of the structure to the commission.
The new structure will consist of two free-standing panels that will contain the etched names of those persons listed on the existing monument.
The Commission to Remember Our Heroes was organized in 2010 and has been successful in leading efforts to erect the Vietnam Veterans Honor Role monument, a memorial honoring Venango County firefighters and law enforcement agents killed in the line of duty; and the John Logue Memorial Drinking Fountain to honor Franklin resident John E. Logue, killed in 1969 while serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
In addition, Bob Billingsley and the Venango County Historical Society coordinated efforts to build an expansive World War I veterans monument in front of the county courthouse.
In the latest campaign, the commission is selling T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing a drawing of the new monument.
The apparel, priced at $15 to $20 for T-shirts and $25 to $40 for sweatshirts, is on sale at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce office.
All proceeds will go toward the project, said Bowen.
“We would like to dedicate it next year to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II,” he said.
