The citizen committee that has spent years raising money to create a Wauwatosa Veterans Memorial is searching for new sites after determining that its preferred site in Hart Park is no longer realistic because of flooding concerns.
Advocates for the memorial already have raised about $200,000 of the estimated $225,000 needed, and they held a groundbreaking ceremony in May at their chosen site, just west of the Tosa Skatepark. But as they were preparing to start construction, their plans were thwarted by the widespread flooding that occurred in the Milwaukee area because of torrential rains Aug. 9 and 10.
Much of Hart Park was underwater, including the memorial site, when the nearby Menomonee River rose an estimated 13 feet and overflowed its banks. Because work had not yet begun on the memorial, no materials were lost, but when the floodwater subsided, the memorial committee conferred with city officials and decided Hart Park would no longer be a suitable location.
"Wauwatosa will likely rebuild Hart Park in a way that mitigates the possibility of damage from a future flood. But the challenges associated with doing so for the memorial make the Hart Park site unlikely," the group said in an update distributed this week to supporters and on its website.
Alex Kaleta, one of the lead organizers, told Tosa Forward News in an interview that the committee has been meeting with the city, county and school district to discuss alternative locations and remains hopeful that they can complete the project in 2026.
"We are committed to getting the memorial built," Kaleta said. "It's just a question of where in the city we're going to place it."
He and others have long envisioned a memorial in the city that would honor the military service of every Wauwatosa veteran. In 2022, the City of Wauwatosa announced that it had agreed to set aside space at Hart Park for the project as veterans groups stepped up their fundraising efforts.
Then in May 2025, on Memorial Day, a ground-breaking ceremony for the veterans memorial was held at Hart Park as part of the city's holiday commemorations.
Mike Anich, who serves on the memorial committee with Kaleta, told Tosa Forward News that they were making final arrangements to begin construction when the August flooding happened.
The aftermath was like "a gut punch," Anich said. Working with city leaders, the committee learned that it would have to conduct a new impact study, likely costing $10,000 or more, and then pay an additional $6,000 to apply for state and federal review of the plan in order to keep the dream alive at Hart Park.
Even then, there was no guarantee that the project there would prevail, and success still would mean a project that would be at risk of damage the next time the river overflowed into Hart Park.
"There's a lot of concern, could this happen again?" Anich said of the flooding. He and the others concluded the memorial "wasn't going to work at Hart Park."
They remain hopeful about finding a new site soon. Much of the material needed has already been purchased and is in storage, Kaleta said, and they are actively inquiring about several possible sites that meet their criteria, including public access and parking accommodations.
If all goes well, "I am optimistic that we could have the project done sometime next summer," Kaleta said.
The group is also still taking donations, including for memorial bricks. Information is available on the memorial's website.
