APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – In 2019 a fundraising project began that would honor veterans in Soldier’s Square in Appleton.
Almost three full years later, still no progress has been made.
Some still hoping a revitalization of the area is coming.
District 9 Alder and President of Sculpture Valley Alex Schultz is still working on the project.
“These organizations that support this project have kind of just been waiting. It’s a hurry up and wait game.”
In 2019 the “Every Soldier’s Square” project was introduced, where for $40, you can honor a veteran with a name engraved on a brick.
“We’re close to 500. The agreement with the community is we wouldn’t pull the trigger and charge them $40 per brick until we reached $2,500 bricks sold so we’re a little less of a quarter of the way there,” said Schultz.
That’s because they haven’t been pushing hard due to challenges.
And at the top of that list, is parking.
“Essentially we’re looking at trying to get removal of five parking spaces, possibly four, and that’s the number we’re chasing,” said Schultz. “Can the argument be made that we can lose four parking stalls to recover this revered space that we haven’t had in over a century.”
The goal is to get a third of Soldier’s Square back through taking away those spaces, making as minimal an impact on the area as possible.
Still, another big problem looms large for its future.
“There’s nothing on the books for the city to do anything in that space,” said Schultz. “And there’s probably 10 years left into that first street design.”
Still Schultz tells FOX 11 he still feels the project can get completed, especially if the community comes together.
