Restoration work on a monument at the Jacksonville Fire Department substation began this week.
The wall, built over 40 years ago, had maintenance issues and was torn down, along with a fountain. The monument, which contains names of past Jacksonville firefighters, was also running out of room for new names, according to fire chief Doug Sills.
“Former chief Rick Kluge kinda got the ball rolling for us. With the repair issues and maintenence issues on the former memorial out there it was decided that probably the best course of action was to in our 175th anniversary year, to possibly go ahead and update the memorial and the fountain out there,” Sills says.
Sills says Leisure Time Pools will install a splash fountain to replace the pool that sat in front of the monument.
The project will cost around $30,000.
Sills says the hope is to have a dedication ceremony sometime this spring.