- December 4, 2025
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What Deputy County Administrator Bryan Parnell called “a grand vision,” Ken Green called “grandiose.”
Green is the senior vice commander of the Braden River VFW Post 12055. He and the majority of Post 12055 members are against Manatee County’s plans for a veterans memorial park and connections hub in Palmetto.
“I think it would be more advantageous to scale this project down,” Green said. “This looks like a multimillion-dollar sugar pill that the taxpayers are going to swallow.”
When the plans were first rolled out in February 2024, Parnell said the total cost estimate from the architect was $30 million for the entire project, including a resource center, boardwalk and concrete pads for future monuments.
In February 2024, Carol Felts was just a concerned resident. Now, she’s the commissioner for District 1, where the park will be located at 5431 Buckeye Road.
Her concerns did not change with her role. As a citizen, she asked commissioners to be “prudent” with taxpayer dollars. As a commissioner during the Sept. 3 work session, she worried the project could turn into a “financial boondoggle for the county.”
However, there’s a plan in place to avoid just that, and it starts with forming a nonprofit.
“We’re not asking the county to fund this project,” said Veterans Project Manager Lee Washington.
Because it could take up to 18 months to set up the nonprofit, Washington is currently seeking an already established foundation to act as a designated fund holder in the meantime, so he and his team can start collecting donations.
The county donated 24 acres of land and earmarked $4 million to kick off the project. Staff members are also trying to tap state and federal funding.
In June, Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed commissioners’ request of $1 million a year over the next five years to fund the veterans connection hub. However, Manatee County is slated to receive $3.8 million from the federal government in December.
The park and connections hub will also offer sponsorship opportunities and a donor wall.
Dave Daily, post commander for VFW Post 12055, still questions why commissioners would want to spend the time and money to build from scratch when they could help veterans right now by leasing a space for a third of the cost?
He noted that servicing veterans is not about “self glory,” it’s about support. All donations to VFW Post 12055 go straight back into the community. The post isn’t paying overhead for a space with a bar.
“We’re not focused on those things,” Daily said. “We’re focused on our veterans’ and community’s needs.”
Another major issue veterans have raised with Manatee County’s plan is the park’s location. They say it’s “too far north” and “too far out there.”
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kevin Wright also said it’s unnecessary when considering that Manatee County already has a veterans park in the city of Bradenton that they could build off — Donald L. Courtney Veterans Memorial Park on the Riverwalk.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Gill Ruderman, who is also an East County resident, said an abandoned, unfinished assisted living facility on State Road 64 would be a much better location. It’s more centrally located for veterans across the county, could be finished sooner and would be less costly.
“Long before Lee Washington was brought on and other staff were hired, we voiced our concerns like a realtor — location, location, location,” Wright said. “We have needs for veterans in this community now, not five or six years from now, and those things don’t have to be tied to that location. It’s not a good place to do it.”
While Felts shared the same financial concerns as the post members, she’s happy with the location.
“We are not ‘out here’ anymore,” Felts said. “We have a hospital coming out here, and this location is right off the interstate.”
Carlos de Quesada with VeraCruz Advisory, LLC is the consultant working with Washington on the project. He shared three key demographic findings on the location.
While there are approximately 40,000 veterans living in Manatee County, the Palmetto location is expected to draw veterans and families from Sarasota, DeSoto, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, as well.
De Quesada noted that the project is a Manatee County-based initiative that aims to serve the entire region, including Sarasota, De Soto, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties
“The more regional service intention allows us to approach a broader base of supporters, national donors, nonprofit collaborators and veteran-serving foundations,” he said.
Commissioner Jason Bearden is spearheading the project. He was a combat veteran who served over eight years in the Marine Corps and rose to the rank of staff sergeant.
“I was homeless on the beach with my last $20 in my pocket,” he said. “There were services that were out there that I didn’t even know about. If I was able to tap into those services, I wouldn’t have been in that situation. Most likely, I would’ve had the help that I needed.”
Several of the post members disagreed with Bearden that services are hard to find. And even if that were the case, they questioned why the county would then put services in a place that’s hard to reach.
Washington, however, sees a major benefit in having all services in one location because there’s no “hand-offs.”
He laid out a scenario of a veteran filing a disability or healthcare claim with Manatee County Veterans Services and then being referred to Turning Points or Salvation Army. The veteran has to then drive or take a bus to the next appointment.
“I need to take you to your next appointment down the hall, in the same building, where all the resources are,” Washington said.
But the list of uses for the project are not limited to veteran services, which especially concerned Ruderman when he saw markets listed on a slide titled, “What will happen here?”
The veteran-focused list included referrals, services, ceremonies, memorial events and veteran service fairs. The community-focused list included concerts, markets, outdoor events, educational tours and historical research.
“I can see them having flea markets there,” Ruderman said. “I don’t think this is the site for a market.”
Due to the scope of the project, the park and connections hub will be built out in phases. The goal is to complete Phase I with the remaining $3.5 million of the commission's initial $4 million allocation. About $500,000 was spent on design.
Phase I will include a parking lot, walking trail and a series of five monuments titled the Hero’s Journey.
The memorials will represent the journey all military personnel take from being civilians to going to boot camp and into service. The final memorial will be titled, “The Welcome Home.”
While VFW Post 12055 took a vote, and the majority of its members are opposed to this project, the Manatee County Veterans Council will hold its own vote during its October meeting.
