Clinton County War Memorials relocated to new home

RecordStaffAugust 24, 2023Last Updated: August 24, 2023

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LOCK HAVEN, PA – Several Clinton County war memorials have been relocated to their new home adjacent to the county’s Piper Building and the relocation was marked by an appropriate ceremony on Thursday morning.

Todd Warner, county Veteran Affairs Director, was master of ceremonies. He noted Clinton County’s proud veterans’ history, dating back to the American Revolutionary War, stating that over 500 county residents had the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of their country.

From the left, Clinton County Veteran Affairs Director Todd Warner and speaker Dave Harger from Harger Utility Charities.

Dave Harger from Harger Utility Charities is heading the committee charged with building a new Clinton County Veterans Park across from the county courthouse. He told the assemblage that the new park should be completed by Memorial Day of next year and expressed some exasperation that the process has taken as long as it has, slowed by delays beyond the local committee’s control.

Harger called the new home for the several relocated memorials now adjacent to the Piper Building the first phase in the process of creating a new park, the idea first raised in 2016. He said, “Hopefully, by next May, we can do it again,” a reference to a dedication ceremony for the new park along E. Water Street.

Harger noted the Piper site now houses an anti-tank gun which had long been a fixture at the Water Street park. He passed along an anecdote about a similar cannon placed at Memorial Park in Renovo some years ago. Harger said the late and distinguished World War II veteran John Curcio jokingly noted at the time the Renovo cannon was aimed at Lock Haven. With the Lock Haven cannon at its new location, its barrel pointed towards Renovo, Harger, whose family hailed from Renovo, said, “Now we can return fire.”

State Sen. Cris Dush (R-Brookville) also spoke and lauded the American military for bringing freedom to people around the world; Dush, a military veteran, served in Iraq before entering politics.