FARMINGTON — Selectmen on Tuesday evening, Oct. 8, approved the site for placement of a Blue Star Marker.

Town Manager Erica LaCroix said she had met with members of Mt. Blue Area Garden Club about a month ago. “The proposal is to place the Blue Star Highway Marker, what you have probably seen around the state, in the median across from the commuter lot at the intersection of routes 2, 4 and 27,” she noted. “I think it is a great idea.”

LaCroix said it is a Maine Department of Transportation controlled area, permission from MDOT was needed, as was Public Works buy in and the board’s approval. Those agencies said yes, she added.

The garden club serves all of Franklin County, president Rachel McClellan said. “Libby Kaut is chair for this committee and the driving force,” she stated.

McClellan said the Blue Star Highway Marker program started in 1945 shortly after World War II. “In New Jersey the National Garden Club planted an enormous forest and they dedicated it to both the Blue and Gold Star families,” she noted. “Blue is for members who served in the armed forces and gold for families whose service members lost lives in the line of service. That took root, both literally and figuratively as the Blue Star and Gold Star program.”

The garden club wants to place a marker on the traffic triangle across from the Department of Health and Human Services building, McClellan said. It will allow people who are coming from the north to see it by the lights while those facing Walgreens could read the sign, she stated.

“The sign would say, “A Blue Star Memorial Highway,”” McClellan said. “This is a national map program so we would literally be putting Farmington on the map. It is a recognized sign. It says, “A tribute to the armed forces that have defended the United States of America.” It will be our garden club as well as the county commissioners who helped us get additional funding to purchase the sign from the ARPA funds.”

McClellan said this project is in addition to the work done at the Teague World War I Memorial Arch. “We thought it would be a fitting tribute,” she stated. “We are asking for permission from the town to be able to do that. Libby has worked with MDOT, they have already approved it. Highway 2/4 is already designated on the Blue Star Marker Highway.”

“We will probably come back as it gets closer,” Kaut said. “We want to do a dedication at the site. We may need help to install it, it is a 7-foot marker.”

Chair Joshua Bell asked about the time frame.

“Typically it’s a 17 week delivery,” Kaut said. “We have to have it paid for before the end of the year because of the funding. We will want to plan a dedication sometime in the spring.”

“After the frost,” Selectman Dennis O’Neil said.

McClellan suggested Memorial Day.

Kaut said it would need to be planned with a number of people, the American Legion for sure. “We don’t want to conflict with anything else they plan to do,” she added.