First responders are the professionals likely to be the first on the scene of an emergency – fire fighters, police, sheriff’s deputies, and others who save lives and preserve both peace and property. Bartlett’s leaders think that the skills, training and sacrifices of these men and women deserve permanent recognition with a monument.
The city is allowing a committee to raise the estimated $200,000 to build the First Responders Monument.
It will be erected on a flat stretch of land off Appling Road, on the southeast side of Appling Lake and the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center (BPACC), said Alderman Emily Elliott. She is chairing the project’s ad hoc Committee.
All funds are expected to come from donations by private citizens, local businesses and corporate sponsors. “Any size donation is welcome,” Elliott said. “It all adds up.”
A booth at the 2015 Bartlett Festival raised almost $800 in seed money, she said.
Organizers are currently seeking supporters to provide concrete, construction labor and funds for the project. Bartlett City Beautiful may also be enlisted to do some landscaping once the monument becomes a reality.
Elliott said an optimistic timeline would have construction beginning in about a year, but that depends on the success of fundraising efforts. She expects it will be a long-range project.
Allen & Hoshall Inc. design firmof Memphis donated the services of one of their surveyors to make sure the site was free of easements, water lines, gas mains and other construction constraints.
Accessible parking is already available at the nearby ball fields and BPACC for when ceremonies are held at the monument, Elliott said.
This project began in May 2015 as the inspiration of Bartlett Police Department officer Tony Webb.
He said the concept of a local monument was inspired by how difficult it is to coordinate schedules and manage costs for officers who wish to visit the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., during National Police Week.
The fact that the city is allowing construction of the Bartlett monument and that citizens are working to make it come true is deeply meaningful to first responders, according to Webb.
“It would mean the world to us in morale,” Webb said. “ … To me, that tells the officers, ‘We love you enough and we care about you enough that we’re going to put up this big monument.”
He and Elliott are on the project’s committee, along with Fire Marshall Howard McNatt, retired fire chief Paul Smith, and private citizens Stephanie Holmes, Cindy Rikard, Mick Wright and Joel Prout.
The monument’s design came from Ben Witt, architect and co-owner of Ross Witt PLLC architecture and interior design firm in Bartlett. It will include a brick walkway made of personalized bricks that people can buy to honor or memorialize first responders.
The proposed monument’s star-shaped base represents law enforcement, while the ladder-like design of the vertical monument represents firefighters. The current design shows flagpoles for the state and U.S. flags, and a flagpole may be added for the city’s flag as well.
Follow progress toward building the monument at facebook.com/BartlettFirstResponders.
The Facebook page is also where the committee will be selling T-shirts to raise more funds for the monument, Webb said.
Donations are tax-deductible. Checks should be made to “The City of Bartlett” with a notation for the “Bartlett First Responders Monument.” Checks can be mailed or delivered to Bartlett City Hall at 6400 Stage Road.
For more information, email Elliott at eelliott@cityofbartlett.org.
Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor. Contact her at (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com.
You should sell etched bricks to go around your memorial with a portion of the funds going to the memorial. That way we could remember our own heroes, such as my brother, David Dondeville. David started as a volunteer fireman while still in Bartlett High School. He loved being a fireman and stayed with Bartlett until years later when medical issues forced him to retire. I would love to remember him at your memorial and will happily buy the first brick should you decide to sell them.