Another big story in Anderson County last year involved the county’s new Veterans Memorial on the North Courthouse Lawn. It may never be as its sales pitch years ago was to county residents and veterans. County commissioners and their computer consultants have been hindered in their attempts to bring the operation of the memorial in line with its digital promise of providing working touch screens to access various local veteran data and to provide ease of updates as the ranks of county veterans expand in the future.
The county is reported to have spent in the neighborhood of $400,000 or more on the structure, but it’s never been completely functional. Commissioners are looking into a redesign that uses the existing database of veteran photos and info and cover the kiosk screens with a plate containing a QR code. That code could be scanned with a cell phone and provide access to the county’s veterans database without using the non-functional advanced kiosk touch screens, which haven’t worked correctly since the memorial was dedicated in June of 2021.
