FARMINGTON — Selectmen voted Feb. 11 to use $2,000 from the Downtown Tax Increment Financing account to support the public display this summer of The Wall That Heals, a traveling three-quarter-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“American Legion District 4, along with University of Maine at Farmington, we are bringing The Wall That Heals here to Farmington,” Jennifer Kimble of Roderick-Crosby American Legion Post 28 said. “We are looking for support from banks, businesses, private citizens in the community to help raise the funds we need, about $25,000.”

She said $2,000 was being requested from the town because the display will bring a lot of business to the community.

Chairman Joshua Bell asked when the display would arrive.

“We will bring the wall in on July 1,” Kimble said. “We will set it up July 2. It will be open to the public July 3-6.”

Selectman Byron Staples asked where it would be.

Kimble said it will be behind the Narrow Gauge Drive-In.

“It is something that is open 24 hours, they never close,” Selectman Matthew Smith, commander of Post 28, said.

“It is free to the public,” Kimble said.

There will be a celebration July 3 with bands and singing the national anthem, Brian Ellis, veterans representative for the President’s Office at UMF, said. “John Moore is going to do fireworks kind of over The Wall,” he said.

Selectman Richard Morton asked about recognition of deceased Vietnam veterans whose names are not on the wall.

Hometown Heroes is for the men and women who served in Vietnam, came back and have since died, Kimble said. Names and photos submitted before the visit to Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation will be displayed at the mobile education center near the wall, she said.

“We are also doing the Quilts of Valor for Vietnam veterans who are alive,” Kimble said. “That is kind of like a ‘Welcome home, thank you for your service’ that they didn’t get.”

Joe Paradis, a member of the planning committee, is arranging to have 100 bikers escort the truck bringing the wall through downtown along Main Street, Kimble said.

Ellis expects 12,000 people or more to visit the wall. “It is the only time that the wall will be here in 2025, Farmington will be the only place in Maine where it will be hosted,” he added.

Kimble said money raised will go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation. “We are not making anything off of it,” she stressed.

Expenet is helping develop a website that will have SignUpGenius available for volunteers to sign up for four-hour shifts.

“We need 300 volunteers, people can sign up for any time they want,” Kimble said.

“We did a small teaser trailer at the theater trying to get the word out already,” Ellis said. Advertising will continue through March and April.

“It’s been in the newspaper,” Ellis noted.

Bell asked how much of the $25,000 has been raised and Kimble said $3,000.

Courtney Austin, with Franklin Savings Bank, said the bank’s charitable foundation would have a check for $12,000 by the end of the week. “We are happy to say we have committed those funds,” she said.

Volunteers will provide security at the site and the police department will increase patrols in the area, Kimble noted.

“It’s a worthwhile project, I am all in favor of it,” Selectman Dennis O’Neil said.