Group suggests new spot for Lisle's veterans memorial

Lisle is just weeks away from starting construction on a veterans memorial in the downtown area, but a group is making a last-ditch effort to convince officials to place it elsewhere.

Plans call for the Military Veterans Memorial to be built at the southeast corner of School Street and Center Avenue on land owned by Lisle Park District.

It took less than a year to raise more than $100,000 in donations to build the memorial, which will replace a previous one in Lisle Community Park. The goal is to finish the project - which will include a vertical monument stone with service branch emblems - by Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

The planned site is next to a blacksmith shop and the rest of the Museums at Lisle Station Park.

Bill Smith of the Lisle Heritage Society Board told park commissioners Thursday night that using the land would make it impossible for the museum to expand in the future.

Reading a statement from the society board, Smith said: "We, the Heritage Society, are stewards of Lisle's museum and must protect it from encroachments. Once the land is used for other purposes, no matter how noble the purpose, it is lost forever and cannot be replaced."

So the society is asking Lisle officials to place the memorial on another site.

The group is proposing the memorial be located at Prairie Walk Pond, at Route 53 and Ogden Avenue. The 4.5-acre water retention area includes walking paths and a nature-themed children's playground called Dragonfly Landing.

"We are in 100 percent support of a veterans memorial," Smith said before Thursday's meeting. "And we're excited about a new memorial in Lisle. But we just believe that if the citizens had any knowledge that it could be put down there at Prairie Walk Pond, they would choose that."

Several other people who addressed the park board on Thursday night agreed with Smith.

Park board President Donald Cook said Prairie Walk Pond is a "well-used area," but it's in a floodplain. He said it would be "irresponsible" to build the memorial on property designed to flood.

"Our veterans deserve a lasting memorial - not something threatened by every bad storm," Cook said as he read from a prepared statement.

Park district Executive Director Dan Garvy said a site selection committee was formed in 2014 to consider alternatives to the parcel next to the Museums at Lisle Station Park.

That panel eventually suggested different spots at Prairie Walk Pond, but the village board never took formal action on the recommendation.

"Absent any other viable option, the focus then returned to the Center Avenue parcel," he said.

Mayor Joseph Broda said the village would consider setting aside land for the memorial at Prairie Walk Pond if it gets a request from the park district.

But it's not anticipated that park commissioners will want to change the location.

Cook said commissioners strongly believe that having the memorial next to the Museums at Lisle Station Park will enhance that area.