Brian Dell Isola's two-year task of naming Ephrata's rail-to-trail walking path after hometown hero Maj. Dick Winters is nearly complete.
On Monday, Ephrata Borough Council's community service committee approved the design and placement of a granite marker that will bear the words "Major Richard D. Winters Memorial Trail. Follow me."
The 3-foot-wide, 4-foot-high marker will be placed by the trail's main parking lot on East Fulton Street, barely 100 feet from Winters' boyhood home. The exact location of the marker is yet to be determined.
"It doesn't have to be done immediately," Dell Isola told the committee. "But they do need to put in a concrete footer for this, so we have to think about where it's going to go."
At Monday's meeting, Dell Isola also asked council about holding the dedication of the marker on June 6, the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe, and the day Winters earned the Distinguished Service Cross, America's second highest medal, at Brecourt Manor in Normandy.
Dell Isola, a borough police officer, is hoping local veterans organizations, as well as a military color guard, will take part in the ceremony.
"I'd like to put this out to all surrounding veterans groups," Dell Isola said. "There are a lot of people who are interested in this."
He also plans to invite members of the Winters family.
"We want to open it up and get as many people as we can here," Dell Isola said.
He said he wants the ceremony to be very simple, yet inclusive.
The event is tentatively planned to start at 6 p.m. Afterward, he said, everyone will be invited to walk the trail.
Council vice president Susan Rowe said Downtown Ephrata Inc., is hoping to coordinate the event with the start of their new Major Dick Winters Walking Tours. These tours can be both guided and self-guided, and will take visitors to numerous locations around the central part of Ephrata that are important parts of the Winters' family story.
The cost of the marker will be about $2,500, and it is being made by Eitnier Memorials in Ephrata.
Dell Isola said he has reached out to various groups for financial support for the marker.
"There's nothing firm, but there are commitments that have been made," he said. "Local veterans groups have taken it under consideration, and I am quite certain we'll have their support to some degree."
If there is any shortfall, he said, he will "reach out to the public in different ways."
Dell Isola began his quest to name the walking trail in honor of Winters in 2011, and it immediately ran into snags. Council did not have a policy in place to cover naming public areas after people, and worried about a rash of similar requests. So Dell Isola had to await a policy.
When the policy was finished, another problem arose. Two of the provisions seemed to disqualify naming the trail after Winters.
One provision says those honored "shall have made significant contributions to the borough, including but not limited to public service, financial gifts, or other contributions."
The other was that a person so honored shall have been a resident of the borough for 10 years. Winters lived in the borough as a child, until he was about 8 years old.
Council finally approved naming the trail in Winters' honor last June.
"It was a long struggle, but a good one," Dell Isola said Monday. "I'm excited for it to happen."
Winters, who commanded Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in World War II, rose to fame, along with his men, following the publication of book "Band of Brothers," by historian Stephen Ambrose.
The book was made into an award-winning TV miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Winters died in 2011 and is buried in Ephrata.
lalexander@lnpnews.com
