Editor\u2019s note: Transcript provided by CoverGov and Cambridge Artificial Intelligencer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Work is getting underway on a veterans memorial at Bedford\u2019s Harris Ryals Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Bedford City Council unanimously approved a resolution at its July 14 meeting<\/a> authorizing construction of the Veterans Memorial Plaza<\/a> at the park.<\/p>\n The council gave the go-ahead for city manager Andrea Roy to enter into a contract with MGS Cortex Construction for $218,500, which includes contingency funds of $25,000. Funding for the project will be drawn from the city’s Series 2019 general obligation taxable bonds.<\/p>\n The plaza will feature memorial walls, commemorative plaques, flagpoles, seating areas, walking paths and landscaping, creating a space for reflection, education, patriotic ceremonies and community gatherings.<\/p>\n The park is named for Bronze Star recipient Army Sgt. 1st Class Harris Ryals<\/a>, whose 22-year career spanned World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. Ryals then worked in the Bedford Parks and Recreation Department for 21 years.<\/p>\n The selection of MGS followed a competitive bidding process<\/a> for construction of the 10,000-square-foot plaza that also will include a 21-foot monument and bronze seals for the six military branches. The city sent bid information to 58 vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe received 10 responses and MGS was the successful bidder based on our scoring criteria that we applied,\u201d Roy said, adding \u201cI know this is much anticipated. I am very excited to bring this forward.”<\/p>\n The approval came on a night with special symbolic significance \u2014 members of the HEB American Legion Post 379 were present in the audience.<\/p>\n Mayor Dan Cogan welcomed the veterans before the meeting was called to order, thanking them for their service as the council prepared to take action on the plaza.<\/p>\n Mark Long, assistant city manager, provided the timeline for the project, noting that the city had already been in contact with MGS ahead of the vote. The city is aiming for completion in November; Veterans Day is Nov. 11.<\/p>\n “We’ve let them know,\u201d Long said. \u201cSo we are ready to go as quickly as they can get their equipment out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Zarate is a freelance journalist.\u00a0 To learn more about how the transcripts that informed this report were created, visit Cambridge Artificial Intelligencer<\/a> and CoverGov<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If you believe anything in this account is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org with \u201cCorrection Request\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/01\/bedford-city-council-approves-veterans-memorial-plaza-construction-contract\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=693983&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/01\/bedford-city-council-approves-veterans-memorial-plaza-construction-contract\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report August 1, 2026 Editor\u2019s note: Transcript provided by CoverGov and Cambridge Artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":974216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,59010,14614,7371,14615,14616,7372,5312,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2512],"class_list":["post-974215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-bedford","tag-documenters","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-documenters","tag-fort-worth-report-documenters","tag-fortworth","tag-parks","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-veterans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}