Pictured is Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown. A project to have a dozen headstones placed at the cemetery is moving forward, despite a delay due to supply chain issues. P-J file photo

A project to have headstones placed at Soldier’s Circle in Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown is being delayed due to supply chain issues.

The project began back in January with the help of city resident George Wiedenhofer after he noticed on a walk that 12 veterans buried in Soldier’s Circle did not have headstones and instead had small, green plastic plaques.

“There are 12 unmarked graves in Soldier’s Circle,” Lakeview Cemetery manager Hugh Golden said. “(Wiedenhofer) and his wife noticed the spots where there was no marker and he asked me about them. They had no marker because for whatever reason, the family had not purchased one, because the spots were provided but the headstones had to be purchased by the family. So, (Wiedenhofer) started a fundraiser.”

The cemetery does not wish to name the veterans out of respect to the families.

Wiedenhofer started a GoFundMe campaign to raise enough money to have headstones installed for all 12 of the soldiers. Donations also were sent to the cemetery office.

Since January, the fundraiser has reached its goal.

“We have raised all of the money needed to put in all 12 headstones,” Weidenhofer told The Post-Journal. “This is all because of a community effort.”

The project reached the point of putting the headstones in, but has been delayed because of supply chain issues. Digging has been completed and the concrete has been laid, but the granite lettering is unable to be completed until the end of the summer, Wiedenhofer said.

“We were originally hoping for June, but now we are aiming for Veterans Day in November,” he said.

Golden added that they hope to have a ceremony once the headstones are finished.

“We’d like to hopefully have a ceremony when they’re there to thank the community and beyond,” Golden said. “We had donations coming in from out of town as well. We’d like to be able to say, ‘This is what your contribution went towards.’ It’s also much more fitting for these veterans to have stones to mark them and their service.”

According to Wiedenhofer, the original intent of Soldier’s Circle in Lake View Cemetery was to see the headstones of local veterans arranged like a military protocol, but with the 12 missing headstones it does not fully work.

“I think we need to give these veterans the respect that they’ve deserved and earned,” Wiedenhofer said.

Altogether, Wiedenhofer said that even with the supply chain issue and having materials not be available again until the end of the summer, the project remains on track.

“We’re just trying to get it done at this point,” Wiedenhofer said. “But, the key is that we are on track.”