National Guard work at Brookside Park in Jackson will include preliminary grading for an expansion of the veterans memorial.

Guardsmen from the 220th Engineer Company based in Festus, Mo., are using the park for training. They have been working since June 1 to flatten the area behind the memorial.

The company left after three weeks, but the project was still incomplete because of all the rain.

"They've been the greatest thing for my corn crop because every time they show up, it rains," said Kent Peetz, Jackson city engineer.

Peetz said the group is returning to finish the project during weekends. They plan to finish by Sunday, said Capt. Tim Biedenstein, commander of the company.

National Guard dump trucks wait Friday to be loaded with top soil from the north side of Brookside Park as part of annual training being held at the Jackson park. (Kit Doyle)

The company lost about seven production days during the three weeks of training, he said.

"We did end up with an amazing amount of rainfall for June," Biedenstein said.

He said the work will include grading and moving dirt to prepare for a new wall at the memorial.

The memorial was dedicated in 1993 and includes the names of war veterans. The Brookside Memorial Foundation continues to receive requests to put names on the wall, said Larry Koehler, treasurer of the foundation.

"The problem is the wall is full. There's no space for names on it," said Koehler, who is also a member of the Jackson VFW Post 10495.

He said the foundation needs to raise about $100,000 before the new wall can be constructed. It will run along the sidewalk leading to the park pavilion creating a V shape, he said.

In the past, the area behind the memorial was slated for a regulation-sized baseball field, but developers used another site. Jackson will seed the area when the guardsmen are done and use it for further development.

Biedenstein said guardsmen are working on a larger scale for the Brookside project, which includes four acres. The project also uses three times more equipment than most job sites.

"It's giving us opportunities that we haven't had in a long time," he said.

The company is storing about half of its equipment at the Jackson armory during the week. The guardsmen transport the rest of the machinery from Festus each weekend, Biedenstein said.

The project included removing 7,000 cubic yards of topsoil. In one area, they removed nine feet of dirt, while other sections were filled with 16 feet. As it finishes, the company will replace the topsoil and complete the grading.

"It involved so much more than cutting off the top of the hill and putting it in the lowland," Biedenstein said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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