City could take over Vets Wall at Marantette

The Columbia Falls City Council agreed at their Aug. 5 meeting that, if necessary, the city would take over management of the Veterans Wall at Marantette Park.

Mayor Don Barnhart recapped past city concerns about the wall and how he and city crews had cleaned up the wall this spring.

Bill Schulte, a former member of the now closed VFW Post in Columbia Falls, addressed the council about his concerns. He said the VFW put about 250 names of living and dead veterans on the west side of the wall over the past few years, and that side of the wall is now completely covered.

Schulte explained that the VFW chose to use bronze lettering for the names because of the heat from the sun on the west side of the wall. But the cost is based on the number of individual bronze letters needed, so people with long names would have to pay more, and being in the Marines would cost more than being in the Army.

With the local VFW Post shut down, the task of getting names on the wall and maintaining the wall was handed over to the Columbia Falls Post 72 of the American Legion.

Don Connors, the post adjutant for the local American Legion post, was out of town and didn’t attend the Aug. 5 council meeting. He told the Hungry Horse News that the post is considering ways to bring down the cost of putting a veteran’s name on the east side of the wall. The post has 37 members, he said, and they meet on the second Tuesday of each month at the Montana Veterans Home.