More than $2,000 has been raised by the Perry Crimestoppers group for a memorial monument to the Perry Police Department, according to Carolyn McNeill of Perry, a Crimestoppers member who briefed the Perry City Council on the idea in February.
“The police — as you know how much they do for the community. They’re there for everybody and everything — they have nothing to show as recognition to our police,” McNeil told the council. “So we were visiting about it and got to talking about it, and we started working on a monument. There will be a police monument for the police. And we would like to set it down in the grassy area right outside the police station there.”
McNeil noted the contrast between the handsome buildings downtown, such as the Perry City Hall, the Perry Public Library, the Perry Welcome Center and Caboose Park, “and then you go over the hill, and that parking lot needs help so bad, so bad,” she said. “I think it’ll be an added thing. So that’s what we’re working on. We’re looking for money.”
McNeil did not have a design to show the council or a drawing of the proposed monument, but she painted a word picture.
“We know what it’s going to look like,” she said. “It would be a large rock. The back of it would be a large rock, and that will be our backdrop. That’s where our plaque will be is on this rock. We are purchasing the rock from Mr. Allen who works for Herb Creese who lives over by Herndon. He’s the one that you see all these large rocks at the Foundry and those, that’s where they’re getting those. I think the rock’s going to cost us probably around $1,300. That will be our backdrop.”
Along with the rock and the plaque, McNeil envisions figures.
“There will be a large policeman,” she said, “a replica of a large, cement policeman, and there’ll be a light, a street light. We’re looking at the three light. It will have the blue lights in it. There will be a flagpole flying the police flag, and the reason we’re not worrying about our American flag at this time is because right over from this you’ve got your big pole outside your police station with your American flag.”
Beneath the flag and the light and the police officer will stand, in McNeil’s imagination, the figure of a child, but she said she has not yet found the child figure.
“With the policeman standing there, below him I want a little boy,” she said, “and I want him looking up at the cop, kind of admiring the policeman. I can find the little boy, but I can’t find him admiring.”
McNeil estimates the cost of the police memorial will be $10,000 to $12,000, including landscaping, planters and a small bench.
“It’s going to be stained. It’s rich looking,” she said. “It’s going to be quite attractive, and we need to raise money.”
McNeil said the police memorial could attract tourists to Perry. She noted police monuments in other cities, such as Grimes.
“I want Perry’s to be sharp,” she said. “I really want it to be a show thing. I want a family to come up and want to maybe have someone sit on the bench and take a picture.”
McNeil said the police monument committee is applying for a grant from the Bock Family Foundation. The group sought but failed to receive funding from 100+ People for Perry.
Perry Police Department Det. Laura Deaton, treasurer of the Perry Police Officers Association, is collecting and holding the funds in the association account.
Perry Mayor John Andorf thanked McNeil for telling the council about the planned monument and suggested a drawing or sketch of the proposal might assist in raising funds.
“You painted a picture very well,” Andorf said. “It would help you fundraise if you had somebody that’s a better artist than I am draw it up for you so you could get that out there and have people see it.”
McNeil said the artists she has spoken with want as much as $1,000 or more to turn her vision into a sketch.
“At this point, I just hate to give up any of the donations that people are so kindly giving toward the monument to have someone draw a picture,” she said, “so if any on you are drawers I would love it.”
Along with her work on the Crimestoppers, McNeil also serves the community on the board of Perry Day Care Inc. and the Dallas County Early Childhood Education Board.
The Crimestoppers meet at noon on the second Monday of each month at the Perry Police Department at 908 Willis Ave.
So you’re going to have a policeMAN and a BOY next to HIM. Yep, then next year you can create a policeWOMAN with a little GIRL looking up at HER.