ONEONTA _ Work on the Memorial Walkway project in Neahwa Park is ongoing, but the site will be used Wednesday for a Veterans Day ceremony.
Poor weather has caused some delays in the project, but Mayor John Nader said local veterans' groups are expected to participate in an observance as the work winds down.
"I'm actually very happy with the progress," Nader said.
The concrete work is expected to end this week. The asphalt for the walkway is scheduled to be put in place beginning Friday, Nader said.
"The new trees have been delivered," Nader said, indicating that they are awaiting planting.
Jim Hawver of the city Engineering Office said the ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. The timing has special significance, he said.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday falling each year on Nov. 11. It has its roots in Armistice Day, first celebrated in the United States in 1919 to mark the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
Armistice Day became a federal holiday in 1938. In 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to recognize all those who served in the military, not just veterans of World War I.
The Memorial Walkway, which was designed with the help of Oneonta veterans' groups, is intended to highlight war memorials and other monuments, some of which have national significance. They include one of the few known memorials to the victims of the 1983 attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen memorial.
Hawver, a member of the Oneonta Veterans of Foreign Wars post, said all of the groups based out of the Oneonta Veterans Club on Chestnut Street have been invited. The event is also open to the public.
"We hopefully will have every club represented," Hawver said.
Those assembled may burn old American flags to dispose of them in the proper way, which is a tradition in Oneonta on Veterans Day, Hawver said.
"I plan on giving a little bit of a guided tour after the ceremony," said Hawver, who has been working on the walkway project.
A plan to install an $870,000 paved path linking several war memorials and historic monuments stalled early last month after last-minute concerns were raised by the public regarding the planned removal of about two dozen trees. City residents and some city officials also questioned the financial impact of the plan, which has been envisioned for a decade.
Nader assembled a committee to develop a compromise that led to about $100,000 being shaved from the overall cost by reducing the amount of lighting on the path; removing a walkway linking the path to Hodges Pond; and making other adjustments to the original plan.
The trees that were removed are along the path of the walkway and include two pines that overshadow the war memorials. Their removal would create a line of sight between a World War I Red Cross canteen worker's monument to the east and a monument recognizing railroad workers killed during World War I and World War II to the west.
The path is replacing a road in that section of the park, and the end result is about twice the "green space" of what existed in the park, Nader said.
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