Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Two contracts OKd for Tinley Park vets plaza

Updated: November 27, 2011 2:14AM

Tinley Park is moving forward with its plan to build a veterans plaza as a tribute to its military heroes.

A village board committee last week approved spending $23,900 for design and management costs of the project near the 80th Avenue Metra train station, which is being reconstructed and enlarged.

The plaza will have a 300-foot-long walkway from the train station through the commuter lot, consisting of paver bricks in one segment and a “hometown hero walk” with oak tree landscaping and stone memorial headstones. The walkway was included in the train station renovation project, which saved the village about $60,000 in construction costs, officials said.

The hero walk will be the second phase of the veterans plaza and will be financed partly through a $100,000 state grant. The section will be a commemorative timeline, honoring Tinley Park veterans who have served in each American war from 1915 to 2015.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the committee approved hiring Site Design Group for $13,500 to prepare bid specifications for the hero walk. It also approved $10,400 to hire construction company Project Management Advisors to oversee that leg of the work.

Tinley Park expects to complete the plaza by Veterans Day 2012. It would also feature a tribute to all five branches of the U.S. armed forces — Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.

The village is using the paver brick area to raise $108,000. It hopes to sell 1,300 of the 4x4 engraved bricks at $100 each, and 125 8x8 pavers at $200 apiece to add lights, ornamental trees, grass and four more flagpoles to the plaza.

News.Yahoo.com

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