DUBUQUE, (AP) — The Dubuque City Council has approved plans to add more features and improve a veterans memorial at Chaplain Schmitt Island in the Mississippi River.
The Telegraph Herald reportsthat the $3.2 million project will include green space, landscaping and LED lighting in and around Veterans Memorial Plaza.
The centerpiece will be a walkway spiraling out from the memorial over a pond, ending with a replica stack of the USS Oklahoma. The ship was where the island’s namesake, Chaplain Aloysius Schmitt, lost his life when it sank during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
The project costs will be covered by Dubuque Racing Association, the nonprofit license holder for the city’s two casinos.
Project planning has been underway for more than two years. Work is expected start in late August or early September, with an opening set for Memorial Day 2020.