Highland Park leaders to discuss Place of Remembrance project

The Highland Park City Council will again discuss how best to honor the those who were killed and injured during the 2022 Fourth of July mass shooting at a meeting on Tuesday.

City officials now intend to call the project - previously referred to as a permanent memorial - the Place of Remembrance. The name change emphasizes that the space will be dedicated to the seven people who were killed, the dozens who were injured as well as commemorating the ways in which the Highland Park community was forever changed, officials said in a news release Saturday.

The Place of Remembrance will be discussed during the city council's Committee of the Whole meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In January, city leaders said the process for a permanent tribute would be a deliberate, inclusive, community-driven and would likely take years

In the hours and days after the shooting that killed seven people and injured dozens more, a makeshift memorial to the shooting victims was formed near the Veterans Memorial at St. Johns and Central avenues.

While it was a comfort to some, the makeshift memorial led others for whom the trauma was still fresh to avoid the area. In September 2022, city officials relocated the memorial to a rose garden next to city hall on St. Johns Avenue.

In November, a new temporary memorial in the rose garden with a plaque for each of the seven people killed was established. That temporary memorial will remain until a permanent version is completed, officials have said.

People with feedback for the project are encouraged to call (847) 926-1036, according to the city's website.

Highland Park City Hall is at 1707 St. Johns Avenue.