POTSDAM – A veterans' monument currently on the lawn in front of Clarkson University's Old Snell Hall will be moved to its new location just east of the existing gazebo at Ives Park on Saturday.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1194 Commander Robert S. Crary said volunteers and members of the VFW post will join forces Saturday morning to move a veterans' monument currently on the lawn in front of Clarkson University's Old Snell Hall to its new location just east of the existing gazebo at Ives Park.

Crary said the focus will be moving the 2,200-pound monument honoring Potsdam-area residents killed during World Wars I and II. That monument also reportedly has an 800-pound base.

"It's going to be all hands on deck Saturday morning. National Grid has donated a crane for the project. Hopefully everything will work out," the VFW commander said.

"We've done some pre-emptive testing, and we know there is some concrete in the ground underneath that monument. We just don't know how much concrete is there and if that monument is pinned to the concrete. We also may move the two smaller monuments from the Old Snell Hall lawn on Saturday," Crary added.

North Country Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, (D-Theresa), checked out the progress of work on the veterans' memorial plaza at Ives Park earlier this week.

Russell secured $15,000 in state funding for the veterans' memorial plaza project. Russell’s 116th Assembly District includes all St. Lawrence County communities along the St. Lawrence River, plus Canton and Potsdam.

"This is amazing. It's a beautiful location," she said as she surveyed the site of the veterans' memorial plaza during her visit this week.

Russell noted she had attended a War College event in Gettysburg a few years ago that included a tour of the battlefield, and it provided her with a deeper understanding of the importance of monuments.

"I gained new insight into the significance of some of the things we see on our monuments. The experience gave me a whole new perspective. These monuments embody the feelings of sorrow and honor in a community that sent its young to war, and the profound impact it had on everyone," she noted in her conversations with Potsdam officials. "We shall never forget."

The new plaza, on the banks of the Raquette River, will include the existing memorials that honor the 57 members of the armed forces from the Potsdam-area that lost their lives in World War I and World War II. The other monuments honor those killed in Korea and Vietnam.

Monuments honoring those who have served in Iraq and Aghanistan, as well as prisoners of war, will be added, and poles flying the American and Prisoner of War flags will also be installed at the new location. A pathway from the memorials to the Raquette River is planned, and additional park benches will be placed in the area.

Potsdam's Memorial Day observances have been held at Ives Park for years, but the Veterans' Day observances have been held on the lawn at Old Snell Hall, where the memorial tablet honoring the war dead from World Wars I and II was erected in the late 1940s.

Crary said progress at the veterans' memorial plaza was slow until the past few weeks when considerable work has been completed. The village's Department of Public Works did site work and got foundations in for the monuments and flagpoles. He noted Kevin Blanchard and his crew dropped in the paver stones and bricks that are being sold to raise funds for the project.

"Village Administrator Everett Basford has been very supportive of this project. Jim Corbett has been the lead for the village DPW crew, and they have done a great job. Willow Tree Florist also did a great job for us," he noted.

Basford and Crary said the new location for the monuments is much more appropriate.

"Those monuments are currently across the street from the village's offices on the lawn at the now vacant Old Snell Hall. It's literally on the edge of the sidewalk next to the street," Basford said.

Crary quipped the 21-gun salute during past Veterans' Day ceremonies has grabbed the attention of motorists driving past the site. "We scared a few people. This new site will be a lot nicer for our ceremonies," he said.

He said organizers will meet their goal of having the Veterans' Day ceremony at Ives Park this year. "We are definitely on for Nov. 11," Crary stressed.