‘Look how beautiful that is’: Colleyville’s new Heroes Park is about to open

Construction of Colleyville’s new Heroes Park to honor hometown veterans is almost finished, and city officials are planning the grand opening.

The project, which started in 2023, will be ready in time for the Stars and Guitars Independence Day celebration on June 26.

The city used tax increment financing to move the old Heroes Park from Piazza Lane to a larger adjacent tract on the south lawn next to City Hall. to accommodate larger city events. The cost is about $6 million.

Currently, there are around 193 veterans who will be recognized, but the park is expected to have around 430 spots with room to grow if more space is needed down the road.

The area will now be a dedicated memorial park, while also having space for city events like Stars and Guitars.

A park design committee was set up with Colleyville citizens who were veterans or had experience with similar projects to take the lead in figuring out how the park should be laid out and what elements should be included.

Mayor Bobby Lindamood told the Star-Telegram this is a very important project for the city and its residents.

“It’s a big deal to not only honor our community heroes, but our heroes abroad that have served in the military that are originally from Colleyville,” Lindamood said.

“We’ve also had some community members that have been here for a long time, and I thought it was very important to get an angle from all different aspects of what we were going to incorporate in the park,” Lindamood said. “Whether it’s citizenship, if you’ve served or the Gold Star parent, it was good to hear the different angles.”

The committees worked closely together to see what design ideas should be added and toured other memorials to gather inspiration and ensure each branch was represented.

“Each park that we visited had something unique to it, and what we did was we took parts of those unique pieces out of each park,” Lindamood said. “We went to Keller, we went to Irving ... and though these are all great parks, how can we make something that — I hate to use the word ‘perfect,’ but are pretty doggone close to perfect.”

Lindamood said this helped come up with the flags for the different branches, the bronze sculpture, the eternal flame, a sculpture with lighting that mimics a flame, and other aspects of the park design.

Lindamood said they wanted the park to be up front and center next to city hall.

“We wanted when people pulled in, it was right there in their face, and they say look how beautiful that is,” Lindamood said. “We didn’t want to tuck it away, and we wanted people to be able to come out and enjoy community events.”

Pamela Savoie, a Gold Star Mother, spoke in a video produced by the city about how the bronze statues she saw at other parks stood out the most.

“Because they were lifelike, they were life-size, they weren’t a picture, they weren’t little, they gave them credibility, that that’s a soldier,” Savoie said in the video.

U.S. Army veteran Eric Newton highlighted that there would be individual plaques not just for the veterans being remembered, but also the space designated for more heroes.

“Because we are not through yet, every time we think we’re through with a conflict a new one comes about,” Newton said. “So it gives an additional space for future use.”

Newton is the commander of the DFW Mid-Cities Chapter 1513 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veterans service organization for combat wounded veterans.

In 2025, he nominated Colleyville to be recognized as a Purple Heart City. The council issued the proclamation in honor of those who died in service or were wounded in battle.

In the video, Newton said the park is designed for people to spend time taking it in.

“It’s important that the younger generation see the sacrifices that the people that came before them, the military that they sacrificed and died for our freedoms,” Newton said.