The new Starke County Veterans Memorial is almost halfway to its crowdfunding goal. If the effort raises $50,000 by July 21, that amount will be doubled by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. Almost $22,000 has been raised so far.
County commissioner and project committee member Kathy Norem told the Starke County Park Board last week that she’s been reaching out to the county’s vendors for contributions. Others are donating their time, labor, and equipment. “Bob Harper lives in North Judson. He owns his own electric company, and he’s going to do the electrical work for free,” Norem said. “Bob Aloi’s doing his work for free. He drew the plans, et cetera, et cetera. The County Highway did their portion for free. Nathan Chambers and Doug Allen are doing all the concrete work for free. The outpour has been very, very incredible. It’s been wonderful, just absolutely wonderful.”
Norem said the Highway Department had completed excavation work, and Mark Milo has offered to install a new drain pipe, if the county could get one. Ozinga will supply the concrete for $102 per cubic yard and has given the county a 25-percent rebate.
Norem said she was working on getting grants from NIPSCO and Kankakee Valley REMC. The new Veterans Memorial is also getting financial support from organized labor. “We’ve gotten well over $10,000 from the various building trade unions and a lot of them from the steelworkers union, as well,” Norem said. “So the unions have heavily supported this, and I’m very, very happy about that. I mean, I was surprised. They just kept passing out checks, and I was very, very grateful for them, so they get a bench.”
Project committee members have also been discussing the project during a weekly segment on the WKVI morning show. Tomorrow’s guest is Nathan Chambers. He’s expected to discuss his role as a project volunteer and give an update on the crowdfunding grant starting at 7:15 a.m. on K99.3.
