Barton County Commission decided on a designer for the Golden Belt Memorial Park monument that will commemorate Barton County citizens that have served honorably in the United States Armed Forces. The Commission chose Chet Kale to design the monument at a price of just under 55,000 dollars. But James Bell with Bell Memorials questioned why his own lower bid was not selected. He said Kale’s bid is over 8,900 dollars more than his bid, and he will do the same quality of work.

But Aliease Dougherty with the County’s Memorial Parks Advisory Committee explained that she wanted to see examples of the contractors work, and Bell Memorial never offered a place to view their work , while Chet Kale did.

The County hopes to collect donated funds to pay for most, if not the entire cost of the monument.

The monument construction won’t begin until the County feels they have a sufficient amount of funding for the project.