HARTINGTON, Neb. – A northeast Nebraska veterans memorial will officially be dedicated this weekend.

After three years of planning and raising money, Hartington will unveil the new memorial on Saturday.

Over 1,000 names are included on the memorial.

“The thing I’m most happy about on this project, not only putting it together, but being able to pay for it,” said project coordinator Dan Kathol. “I’m happy to say that the monument’s running us about $498,000 and change, but we have raised another 25-to-30 thousand above that, so we have some kind of a reserve fund to buy flags in the future and for the maintenance that we might, that we will, have in the future.”

Kathol, a Hartington native, served in the National Guard from 1972 to 1978.

He didn’t act alone, enlisting the help of people like Dean McGregor, a fellow Hartington native. How did McGregor, a Navy veteran, come aboard the project?

“Kind of reluctantly,” McGregor said. “I’m a little too old for these kind of things. Dan approached me in my driveway, and he said, ‘We’ve got a chance to get this land. What do you think?’ I said, ‘That’s fine.’”

It cost families $150 to list a veteran on the memorial.

The dedication ceremony will begin on Saturday at 2:00 p.m., with a reception at the Hartington VFW afterward.