BELHAVEN — Plans for a memorial garden at the Jacklyn Lucas Veterans Memorial Park in Belhaven are moving forward.

Belhaven resident Dave Rieves introduced plans for the maintenance and improvement project at May 22’s Board of Aldermen meeting and asked for the board’s support in making the garden a reality.

Rieves said the cost of maintaining such a memorial garden is $1,000 per year, the payments of which would be split into fall and spring allotments. A freestanding wall of recognition would honor Belhaven residents who served in the military and lost their lives in the service, he said.

He estimated maintenance of the memorial garden to take about 250-300 hours of labor per year, broken up into about five to six hours a week per week. Rieves also said four street lamps at the veterans park need rewiring after flooding and debris from a previous hurricane.

“In the past, St. James (Episcopal Church) has been financing it because it was next to the senior center, and we were involved with the senior center, so we took care of the park at $250, and so it really hasn’t had a lot of money spent on it,” Rieves said. “St. James is still willing to do their $250, but we’d like to have a little more money, so I thought maybe you could get a little something in your budget for us.”

He told the board that plans for the wall of recognition and memorial garden are in the early stages, so volunteers are still needed to make it a reality. A sign marking the park itself was erected earlier this year.

“We also need people to help us to design the garden,” Rieves said. “If we create the design, we can go after money to get the thing done.”

Alderman Yvonne DeRuiz asked if the wall could be used to draw people into the park and raise funds for future projects there, and Rieves said he would be open to that possibility. Belhaven Memorial Museum operates on a similar plan, as it seeks grant money as an organization, requests funding from the Town of Belhaven and uses donations from visitors.

“We’re just beginning, and so I’m open to most anything,” Rieves said.