Elgin Veterans Memorial
By Amanda Marrazzo - Special to the Tribune
Elgin officials hope to start construction in late May on a long-planned veterans memorial along the Fox River.
City Council members approved a $746,528 contract Wednesday with Shales McNutt Construction of Elgin to build a veterans memorial near Gail Borden Public Library.
The contractor said work will begin by Memorial Day and will be complete by Veterans Day in November. Rick Hitchcock, president of Hitchcock Design Group of Naperville presented final plans to council members during a committee of the whole meeting. Hitchcock and Shales McNutt are partners on the project.
Hitchcock described the memorial as peaceful and solemn=a place for "remembering vets who gave their lives." It will have two interconnected plazas with a series of flags at the east end and a solitary flag to the west overlooking the river.
City officials said the Elgin Veterans Memorial Committee began pushing for the project about three years ago.
The memorial was to have been built on the site of a former public works yard, but plans were shelved when the soil was found to be contaminated. The new site is "very visible," Councilman David Kaptain said. "I didn't want to see it stuck off in a corner someplace. I think it was given a place of prominence, and that is the way it should be."