Donations sought to fix more damage found at Harrison veterans memorial

Apr. 17--More damage has been found at Harrison Township'sHonor Roll memorial, and volunteers who have been working to preserve and restore it say more donations are needed.

The 75-year-old stone memorial at Freeport and Springhill roads bore the names of nearly 2,000 World War II veterans painted in gold on black glass panels. Work to shore up its crumbling structure was completed before winter last year, and its glass panels will be replaced with granite ones with the names etched into them.

More stone damage was found when the glass panels were recently removed, said Eric Bengel, a member of the memorial's restoration committee.

Committee member Bill Rudolph said more cracks were found in the memorial's block work.

"The upper parts of each panel have a lot of damage that will have to be filled in," he said. The repairs are estimated to cost about $1,400.

"The repair work will only take a day or two to complete and has to be finished before the new panels go in," he said.

Donations to the effort are down because of the covid-19 pandemic, Bengel said.

"We need the community's help. Although the granite has been ordered, we are still in need of funds to install the granite and to finish all of the stonework," he said. "We are asking the community for a final push of contributions to put us back on track."

Contributions to the Harrison Township Honor Roll are being accepted at KeyBank.

Banners honoring veterans are also being sold to support the restoration effort. Rudolph said 106 of the 151 available have been sold.

Bengel said the committee plans completing the memorial by Memorial Day, but it could be later in the summer because of the pandemic.

The committee sought to add any names missing from the memorial and to correct misspellings. A list of all names on the memorial is available online.

For more information, harrisontwp.honorroll@gmail.com.

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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