Vets clean park at county archives
RUSSELLVILLE — Members of VFW Post 5184 gathered Saturday at the Franklin County Archives to clean the Veterans Park located outside the building.
Cleanup duties included power washing monuments and cutting the grass.
Archives volunteer Buffie Ozbirn said the Veterans Park was established in 2007 after Frances Nichols and her family sought to create a local veterans memorial while her sons were deployed with the 115th Signal Battalion in Iraq.
Ozbirn said Nichols was a volunteer at the archives, which led to the park being located there.
Vietnam veteran Mousey Brown said local veterans should continue helping care for memorial sites connected to military service.
“I think it’s important for veterans, especially veterans from Franklin County, to take part in a day of service like this,” he said.
Brown returned from Vietnam in November 1968 and became a VFW member in 1970. He said he has now been a member for 56 years.
“A veteran’s duty is to help keep these monuments clean and not just let them deteriorate,” he said.
