During a special meeting Monday night the Slatington Borough Council gave its official approval to the Veterans Memorial that is expected to be completed in November. The Veterans Memorial Committee broke ground on the monument's site July Fourth during the borough's annual Heritage Day Celebration in the Memorial Park. Blueprints and sketches of the future stone structure were on display for community members to help illustrate what the space will look like for the fall unveiling.

The committee has been working to raise money for the monument by selling 4-by-8-inch bricks to the public to be engraved with the names of honorably discharged veterans from the area and beyond.Lehigh Engineering Associates Director of Engineering Larry S. Turoscy described the structure to the council and residents in attendance before the final approval was voted on unanimously.The main body of the memorial will be a granite monument listing all Northern Lehigh area servicemen who lost their lives in the line of duty, seven flagpoles for each of the branches of service, MIA-POW and American flags as well as the engraved bricks listing the names of veterans in raised beds on either side of the granite structure."This is a hard-working group," said Turoscy of the committee. "They are working with the Heroscape company who will donate pavers if needed."According to Turoscy the engineering firm has donated its work to the committee to help get the memorial underway."My father was in the infantry on World War II that landed at Omaha beach on D-Day. He made it through. Anyone who's had someone like that, this is important to those families," he said."When it's done, it'll be something this borough can be proud of."Construction is expected to begin in September.