BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - It's been in shambles for months, and now a local veterans monument is set to be torn down in the morning.

That has residents who've been volunteering to help fix it very upset.
"Its very sad," Bonita Springs resident Sue Forster says.

The flag poles are empty, and letters are missing from the phrase put here at this Bonita Springs cemetery to honor our nation's veterans.

"There's something wrong with this," Forster says. "This is a veterans cemetery or we're supposed to be honoring these veterans or soldiers and there's something about this that's really upsetting to me."

Forster tried to take action, even offered to take up collections, but her calls to the American Legion in March still haven't been returned. That may be because the Legion says its not theirs.

"I don't like to see it say American Legion on there when the American Legion didn't fund it in the first place," Former Commander Bill Hadfield says.

The Legion didn't fund it, but it was built in honor of the local Post 303.
Hadfield says the Community Cemetery Club built the wall back in 1998. He says that group was supposed to maintain it, but disbanded soon after the monument was built.

It was left to the First Baptist and United Methodist Churches in Bonita Springs, who own the cemetery, to keep up. Today we talked with someone at the First Baptist Church, who said, maintaining the monument isn't their job, since they never gave permission for it to be built there.

Now, they say now, since they are co-owners of this cemetery, they're just going to tear this monument down.

That news upsets Forster even more.

"I don't care who owns the property. Obviously there were people, individuals that were interested in doing something to honor our veterans and now we're just going to tear it down?" Forster askes.

Kevin Bradley from the First Baptist Church tells WINK News they plan to start tearing the monument down Wednesday morning.