West Bend, WI – The Washington County Veteran Memorial geo-location project application portal is now live. Significant effort went into creating the portal, in partnership with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department, Veterans Service Office, and many wonderful volunteers in Washington County, including Boy Scout Troop 226 - chartered by the West Bend VFW.
“Our thanks go out to the many volunteers and scouts who assisted the Veterans Service Office and our GIS Department in memorializing our county’s veterans. This project emphasizes our civic responsibility to remember the service and sacrifice our veterans have made for us,” said County Executive Josh Schoemann.
A year and a half ago, the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department reached out to our county Veterans Services Office about creating an app to search for veterans’ gravesites. Veterans Services Director Kurt Rusch said, “it was such an awesome idea to provide this service which encompasses all the cemeteries with veterans across Washington County.”
The public portal can be accessed from the Washington County website (https://www.washcowisco.gov) by clicking the ‘Maps’ icon from homepage or directly: https://maps.washcowisco.gov/apps/vets . The application allows users to search veteran burial sites, visualize the various service periods as well as view a picture of the memorial.
The large scope of the project entailed gathering precise data at over 7000 veteran gravesites. Work on the data collection is ongoing with approximately half of the gravesites located. Once complete, the Memorial Application portal will be updated annually to reflect veterans who have passed away in the previous year.
This is not the first time that Washington County has worked toward honoring our deceased service members. For the past 10 years there has been another effort to locate Civil War Monuments throughout Washington County. “These two projects are linked, they are meant to ensure our heroes are not forgotten, and to bring sacrifice and the price of freedom to the forefront.” said Rusch.
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