A number of Veterans Day activities are planned next Wednesday, Nov. 11, in several locations throughout Leelanau County.

Veterans Day observances are traditionally held at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month each year.

This year will be no exception as local veterans and their supporters gather for the county’s official Veterans Day observance at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the flagpoles in front of the Leelanau County Government Center.

It will be the second year that Veterans Day observances will be held in front of the new government center building instead of at the Veterans Memorial site in front of the old county courthouse in Leland. The black granite Veterans Memorial marker is currently in storage awaiting completion of a new Veterans Memorial plaza on the government center campus.

At this year’s ceremony, members of local Veterans of Foreign War and American Legion posts will provide color guards and a firing squad as part of the observance.

The keynote speaker at the government center ceremony will be Maj. Nick Martinson, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Better known locally as the director of the Martinson Funeral Home in Suttons Bay, Martinson, 38, also serves as commanding officer of a Marine Reserve company headquartered at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Mount Clemens.

Two other Veterans Day observances will occur earlier next Wednesday, both in Northport.

Beginning at 8 a.m., the Northport Highlands senior living community will offer breakfast to seniors followed by a special presentation for veterans featuring a talk by World War II veteran Richard Grout of Suttons Bay. Anyone wishing to attend the event should contact Beth Nunnelly at Northport Highlands for a reservation at 386-9900.

Beginning at 10 a.m. at Northport Public School, students will hear a presentation from Leelanau County resident and veteran Conrad Bult on the history of Armistice Day and Veterans Day. The keynote speaker at the event in the Northport Public School auditorium will be county resident Raymond Ross, Ph.D.

The public is invited to attend the Veterans Day program at Northport Public School, according to teacher Dan Stowe.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the county, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will offer free access to the national park for all veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces on Veterans Day.

Sleeping Bear Dunes superintendent Dusty Shultz explained that the Interior and Agriculture departments began the annual fee waiver three years ago on Veterans Day.

Leelanau County commissioner Richard A. Schmuckal of Suttons Bay serves as chair of the county board’s Veterans Memorial committee. The committee has been working for more than a year on a design for the memorial site. Last month, the county board awarded a $151,515 contract to SRW Contracting to build a Veterans Memorial plaza on the southwest side of Government Center Drive just after it enters the government center campus off M-204 (Duck Lake Road) in Suttons Bay Township. Some $90,000 had already been appropriated for the project.

Schmuckal said construction on the new Veterans Memorial site will get under way this fall, and the site should be ready for Memorial Day observances at the end of May 2010.

The circular plaza will have the county’s historic Veterans Memorial marker as a focal point, flanked by flags representing each of the armed services. Low walls, benches, pathways and parking areas are also included in the design.

At a recent Veterans Memorial committee meeting, members decided to hold a formal dedication ceremony for the new Veterans Memorial plaza on Aug. 14, 2010. That date is the 65th anniversary of “VJ Day,” which marked victory over Japan and the end of World War II.

In addition, the county board’s Veterans Memorial committee has been working on a brochure outlining a plan to help defray some of the costs of constructing and maintaining the Veterans Memorial in the years ahead. The plan will allow Leelanau County residents to “purchase” personalized, engraved bricks, park benches and other elements of the Veterans Memorial plaza to honor individual veterans and loved ones.

More information on the program will be announced at the 11 a.m. Nov. 11 ceremony in front of the Government Center, Schmuckal said.