Work begins on NW Indiana war memorial delayed by recession

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) - Work is underway in northwestern Indiana for a war memorial that was delayed for years by the Great Recession after the 2008 financial crisis.

Crews began clearing trees Wednesday in Crown Point for the memorial, which will feature three separate monuments: one for World War I veterans, another for World War II veterans and one for victims of the Holocaust.

The two war memorials will be placed at opposite ends of a long walkway lined with plaques with information giving visitors a clearer understanding of the events between the two wars, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

Work on the memorial was supposed to begin after the completion of the Lake County Korean War Memorial in the nearby town of Leroy in 2003. But the project was delayed by the impact of the Great Recession, said Mitch Barloga, president of the Friends of Veterans Memorial Parkway.

Planning for the memorial regained momentum in 2015 after the Lake County Council gave $100,000 toward design and development, he said.

"This was money to get the thing moving and getting the engineering or the design work and the preliminary engineering going and to get some donations moving forward," Barloga said.

Barloga said the goal is to have the memorial finished by 2021 or no later than 2022.