October 22, 2009, 2:24 pm
Repair work was under way Wednesday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
on the National Mall as a private memorial fund took over landscaping
and maintenance of 13 acres from the National Park Service.
Over
the next two weeks, workers are restoring the flagpole's bronze finish
and its decorative base with five military branch insignias. They will
also restore the bronze finish for five stands that hold directories
that help people find names on famous V-shaped memorial wall, which
draws millions of visitors each year.
The Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Fund, which built the memorial, also has repaired an
irrigation system and is reseeding and sodding the grass.
Last
month, the group announced plans to pay for maintenance at the site
because of scarce funding from the federal government. They plan to
raise more than $1 million to care for the memorial and grounds,
including $500,000 to buy replacement granite if sections of the wall
need to be replaced in the future.
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