Brentwood paused Wednesday to honor its veterans with a ceremony held right next to the patch of green space where the city hopes to eventually break ground on a $1.5 million monument. The gathering, held beside the Brentwood Police Department, featured the Brentwood High School Chamber Choir performing the Armed Forces Medley as organizers laid out their latest vision for a tribute that has been discussed for some time.
According to WSMV, the city shared an update on the planned monument, which calls for two plazas honoring everyone who served, reflection walls mounted with plaques, flags representing every branch of service, and a bronze soldier standing at the center. The site is meant to be a place for education and quiet reflection, according to Rhea Little, a vice mayor and committee member.
“It’s just a way of saying thank you for showing gratitude for those who have done so much and those who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms,” Little said, per the station's report. He added that the space will be used for ceremonies, remembrance, and honoring veterans both past and present, and said he believes it will help pass the importance of service on to future generations. Little also said he believes soldiers will come to the site to reflect and heal.
A Navy Veteran's Pitch for Small Donations
The project will not be paid for with taxpayer money, the same account notes. Large donors have already given about one-third of the money needed, and the Brentwood Veteran's Monument Committee is now asking the broader community to help close the gap.
James Lundquist, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam and sits on the committee, said every dollar given shows gratitude to a veteran. He said he hopes the monument will give the community something to take pride in, and give children a chance to learn history and appreciate what veterans have contributed, the station's report states.
Lundquist said he would love to see small donations, including children emptying their piggy banks, per the same account.
Timeline Still Hinges on Fundraising
Organizers hope to break ground sometime in spring 2027, but only once fundraising reaches the halfway mark, according to the report. They are also hoping the finished monument will be ready in time for the 2027 Veterans Day ceremony, though that target depends on how quickly donations come in.
The Williamson Herald reports that the Brentwood City Commission unanimously voted to extend the Veterans Memorial Ad Hoc Committee by a year, with its eight members now serving until January 1, 2028. The paper notes the committee was originally authorized in 2025 to formulate a vision for a memorial near Brentwood Police Department headquarters on Heritage Way, and describes the project's estimated cost as $1.5 million, to be raised entirely through private donations.
That same Herald report attributes a six-month delay in the project's fundraising deadline to Little, who said the final design took longer than anticipated. NewsChannel 5 similarly reported that the project design had been delayed by roughly six months, pushing fundraising behind the original schedule, and that an earlier stated goal of finishing the memorial by the end of that year had slipped while the site remained green space.
Project Cost and Corporate Interest
WSMV and the Williamson Herald describe $1.5 million as the project's fundraising target.
The Herald also reported that eight corporate partners across the city and county have expressed interest in contributing to the project, and that the City Commission previously created a trust fund to hold all donations and fundraising revenue tied to the monument. Brentwood commissioners separately allocated $50,000 in capital funding for preliminary design work, according to Citizen Portal, even as organizers continue to lean on private fundraising for the bulk of construction costs.
For now, the lot beside the police department remains undeveloped, a placeholder for a design organizers say will one day include a bronze soldier, flags and quiet plazas for reflection. Whether that happens by spring or later depends, as it has for months, on how quickly Brentwood residents and corporate donors step up to close the remaining gap.
