A new veterans monument located near the Karns City municipal building will be dedicated on Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11. Submitted photo

This Veterans Day, Karns City will pay a small token of appreciation to the residents of the borough and the surrounding area who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedom with the dedication of a veterans memorial on Monday, Nov. 11.

The new monument, located next to the Karns City municipal building on Main Street, stands 8 feet tall and features six bronze plaques, one for each branch of the U.S. armed forces.

The monument is dedicated to all Karns City area veterans, but does not list any names. This was a deliberate move, according to Karns City borough council member Keith Cousins, in order to avoid the possibility of misspelling any names.

“One of the neighboring townships had a real nice monument and put all these veterans’ names on there, and it looks really nice,” Cousins said. “But they didn't get the spelling right on a couple of them, and the people were just raising heck with them over it. And we didn’t want to get into that.”

Cousins said the borough had been seeking to construct a monument to veterans for years, but had trouble obtaining funding.

“We sold some coal and some timber and came up with some excess money that we had to do this with,” Cousins said.

Chris and Terri Hile, owners of Donegal Monument Company and Emlenton Granite Works, were called upon to design and order the memorial, while T.J. Philips, of Phillips Excavating, installed the monument’s cement foundation and other surrounding structures.

“We got in touch with Chris Hile, and he’s the one who spearheaded this thing and ordered it,” Cousins said. “So it’s been in the making for at least two years, maybe a little longer.”

The dedication ceremony kicks off at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, at the site of the new monument. Parking will be available across Main Street or at the nearby Hile Funeral Home.

While the cost of the monument was not immediately available, local businesses and residents are invited to donate to the borough to help defray the cost of its construction by sending a check payable to: Karns City Borough, PO Box 10, Karns City, PA 16041.

Donations will help support the addition of a flag pole, lighting, landscaping and more at the location of the monument.