Bicentennial bell to make the rounds before dedication

The monument on which the bell will be housed is about paid for.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A Veterans Day ceremony to dedicate a bicentennial bell and the new monument on which it will be mounted is being postponed, but for good reason, a Columbiana County commissioner says.
A veterans group wants the bell to stay unattached for a while so it can be taken to events around the county, Commissioner Jim Hoppel said.
Salem AMVETS Post 45 has made promotion of the bell a priority.
The group recently provided the county with a stand on which to hang the 250-pound bronze bell in the courthouse lobby.
The bell was cast at the county fair in July to celebrate the state's bicentennial, and the company that did the work temporarily provided a metal stand on which to display the bell.
But when the stand had to be returned several weeks ago, the county was forced to store the bell in an office.
That's when AMVETS stepped forward and donated the bell stand, which allowed the bell to be returned to the courthouse lobby.
Public viewing
Now the group is working on a trailer on which the bell can be mounted and taken to events for public viewing, Hoppel said.
Previously, the county had planned a dedication ceremony set for Veterans Day.
The event would have marked the mounting of the bell onto a monument built outside the courthouse earlier this year.
There will still be a dedication, but it won't be until sometime in 2004, Hoppel said.
The nearly $22,000 granite monument bears inscriptions of the names of Medal of Honor recipients who either were from the county or buried here.
Although the state paid for casting the bicentennial bell as part of a program to provide such bells to all 88 Ohio counties, each county is responsible for the cost of whatever structure is used to display the bell.
Commissioners set out this spring to raise money to pay for the monument.
So far, about $20,000 has been gathered.
Fund raising partly entailed soliciting donations and selling bricks for $50 each.
The bricks are inscribed according to the donors' wishes and are part of a pad that lies at the foot of the monument.
About 170 of the bricks have been sold.
The pad holds nearly 400 bricks. Even after enough is raised to pay for the monument, the county will continue selling the inscribed bricks, Hoppel said.
The money will be put in a fund to maintain the monument, he said.