Kissing Tree breaks ground on new veterans plaza

Above, representatives of Brookfield Residential, which is the developer for Kissing Tree, are on hand for the groundbreaking along with Gerry McLaughlin, middle, the chair of the Kissing Tree Veterans Group Board.
Daily Record photo by Dalton Sweat

Veterans Plaza will be a beautiful addition to the Kissing Tree community.
Architectural rendering provided by Kissing Tree

Members of the Kissing Tree Veterans Group were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Veterans Plaza.
Daily Record photo by Dalton Sweat

Kissing Tree held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to start the construction of the new Veterans Plaza.

“Veterans Plaza will provide the community with a unique space [at Kissing Tree] to hold memorials, special events, honor those who served in the armed forces and those we love,” Matthew Dozier, Executive Director of Kissing Tree Master Community Inc., said. “The creation of such a space is the joint vision of community leaders, their families and the people who have committed to creating the vision for a place like Kissing Tree in the Texas Hill Country.”

Local businesses and the Kissing Tree community raised funds for the project.

“This has been a long, long, four-year long and then some, uphill slog,” Gerry McLaughlin, chair of the Kissing Tree Veterans Group Board, said. “We have out kicked our coverage. … This is something hopefully going to be here for a long, long time and be an asset to the Kissing Tree community and the community in general.”

The plaza will have flags on display as well as bricks with names of people from the Kissing Tree community engraved on them as part of the fundraising plan for the construction of the plaza.

Dozier thanked the current Veterans Group Board of Gerry McLaughlin, Sal Pagano, Si Jones and Stan Uchman as well as some of the pioneers of the project in Jack Pryor, Pat Porter, Kevin Wilson, David Reel and Matt Chase.