The Waller County courthouse has a new decoration honoring America’s veterans on its front lawn. Installation of the roughly $300,000 monument honoring U.S. veterans was completed last week after being in development for years as a grass roots effort by county residents, officials said.

“A lot of towns and counties have some type of veterans memorial whether it’s a (monument or) a memorial park and we didn’t have anything, so it was actually the veterans who put everything together. They raised 100% of the money,” said Waller County Commissioner for Precinct 4 Justin Beckendorff.

Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said the project began before he was initially elected as county judge in 2014 when a committee chaired by Waller County Commissioner Jeron Barnett was formed. The committee was initially all veterans, Duhon said, but as time went by other community members stepped in to support the project that court members fully supported.

Duhon and Beckendorff both said they were proud of the Waller County community for stepping in because the committee was able to raise the money and make sure the memorial happened.

Final invoices for the project have not been received as yet, but the court has expressed a willingness to cover any small cost gaps that may exist after money from the committee’s fundraising efforts are exhausted, Duhon said. That number may be around $40,000, but Duhon said the funding is available in the county’s capital outlay fund – the portion of the county’s budget set aside to maintain, upgrade, acquire or repair capital assets such as facilities or vehicles.

The memorial itself consists of a concrete foundation and marble and black granite monuments honoring U.S. veterans. The black granite slabs have laser-etched images on them depicting each branch of the military’s service to the nation. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard are all represented, and images were chosen by the committee which is comprised mostly of veterans from throughout the county.

Duhon commended Waller County Construction Manager Danny Rothe for helping to coordinate the project’s completion.

Rothe said he was pleased with the work contractors did putting the memorial together. Architecture firm Blue Line out of Katy designed the structure; engineering was completed by EHRA Engineers, stone can from Laser Imaging; Kronberg’s Flags and Flagpoles installed the flag fixtures; Tucker Concrete laid the foundation and Bobcat Crane placed the monuments.

“All indications said it was going to be really, really nice and it turned out better than I expected,” Rothe said.

Beckendorff said he was glad the memorial is finally complete because organizers and county officials really wanted the county’s surviving World War II veterans – sometimes referred to as the “Greatest Generation” – to be able to see it and feel appreciated. He noted that the committee had already lost one of its founding WWII veteran member of the original committee and Duhon said at least one other is reportedly in poor health.

“We lost Charlie Morgan – he was one of the founders – two years ago and unfortunately he wasn’t able to see it, but he was one of the main people on the committee,” Beckendorff said.

Commissioners court members also said they were happy that the site was established to be a resource for educators who could develop lesson plans and come out to use the memorial as a visual aid for teaching students.

Duhon said the Waller County community felt strongly enough about the memorial that commissioners court happily welcomed the memorial onto the county courthouse square, which had its own complications. The Texas Historical Commission is generally protective of county courthouse grounds and what is installed in them, but the county fought for permission to have the memorial installed, which Duhon said he felt was appropriate in order to get the monuments installed in a timely manner.

“It was something that was definitely long overdue since we did not really have anything that paid tribute to our veterans in Waller County,” Duhon said.

Ceremonies to officially open the memorial are not yet fully planned, officials said.