Pick a new veteran's memorial at Bath Legion
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

BATH - The Charles E. Wescott Post 173 of The American Legion will display dozens of memorial designs on Veteran's Day to replace the current veterans memorial at the southwest corner of Liberty and West Washington streets.

The designs have been assembled by students at Alfred State College, who visited the site earlier this year as part of a project spearheaded by village residents Tony Ritter and Mike Skelly.

Ritter and Skelly - the latter a member of the Bath village board - hope to raise enough funds to finance construction of a memorial that would replace the current structure, which was erected in the early 1970s by the Bath Elks club.

According to Ritter, the new memorial should honor all Bath veterans, encompassing all past conflicts in which American vets served and representing all branches of the U.S. armed services.

To that end, Ritter contacted urban design faculty members at ASC with the idea of having students design a new memorial. With more than 40 ASC students working on individual proposals, the range of ideas should give local residents and veterans plenty of choices, Ritter said.

The Legion will be open on Saturday, Nov. 11, following the 11 a.m. Veterans Day ceremony at the Steuben County Veterans Memorial facing Pulteney Park. Ritter said village residents attending the open house will be invited to vote on their favorite memorial proposals. A local committee composed of up to four veterans from the Bath area will tabulate the votes and choose the top 20 displays, Ritter said.

Those displays then will be shown at area stores, where people again may cast votes on their favorite design.

Ritter said the veterans' committee then will look at the top five vote-getters and choose a final design for the corner lot, which is adjacent to St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Ritter said construction of the new memorial will be financed with a combination of local fund raising and state and federal grants.