FAIRMONT, W.Va. — The Korean War Memorial will have a very large flagpole delivered to Fairmont in May.
The flagpole will stand at about 125 feet tall and will hold a flag that is 30 feet by 50 feet. The flag pole is so large it will be delivered in multiple pieces the middle of the month of May.
The memorial flag was funded by donations. The fund was established in 2011 with Your Community Foundation.
Beth Fuller works for YCF and helped to oversee the fundraising for the project.
“These projects take time. You receive a lot of little donations,” Fuller said. “This project had perfect timing. Everything came together on this project. It’s finally time that it can move forward.”
Fuller said the project still requires some additional funding to pay for maintenance and future flags.
Rick Hardman designed the Korean War Memorial. He said he made many different nuances on the memorial and the flag pole.
“(The flag pole is) 125 feet tall, which is close to 38 meters,” Hardman said. “The 38th parallel is where they drew the DMZ.”
According to Hardman, the flagpole required a concrete base that was eight feet long, eight feet wide and 16 feet deep. There is a mine shaft below the flagpole as well.
A hole was dug out to the mine shaft to reinforce it and prevent it from collapsing from the weight of the flagpole…