ComEd Kicks In $10,000 To Help Repair Veterans Memorial
(CBS) -- Efforts to rebuild a vandalized veterans memorial in New Lenox received a big boost Monday when a utility promised to kick in $10,000.
Four of the five tall granite stones representing branches of the military were damaged in late September. A 26-year-old Bourbonnais man has been arrested and charged with the vandalism.
At a Veterans Day ceremony at the Oakbrook Terrace headquarters of ComEd, the utility announced it was donating $10,000 toward restoring the site in New Lenox.
Village Administrator Kurt Carroll says calls and donations have poured in from around the country and that, at last count, some $30,000 in donations had come in, not counting the ComEd assistance.
Carroll says estimates provided so far indicate it could cost as much as $50,000 to replace the memorial.
Simply replacing the four broken stones is not likely, he says, because it would be too hard to match those stones with the one stone not damaged, the one dedicated to Army veterans.
Retired Marine Sgt. Art Chavez heads a veterans' organization at ComEd and says he's glad the utility jumped to help out once he and his group proposed doing something for New Lenox.