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Sylvania renovates veteran's monument

Memorial Day is next week, a time many will stop and remember those who have died serving our country. A local cemetery just wrapped up a special project for veterans.

SYLVANIA, OH (Toledo News Now) - Memorial Day is next week, a time many will stop and remember those who have died serving our country. A local cemetery just wrapped up a special project for veterans.

It stands nearly 70 feet in the air.

"It's topped with a bronze spire at the top that you can see pretty much everywhere in Sylvania," said Jeffery Clegg, Toledo Memorial Park president and CEO.

The Veteran's Memorial Tower at Toledo Memorial Park was built in the 1920s as a tribute to veterans of WWI.

After all those years, it was starting to show its age.

"The base of our tower, which is made of lime stone, was showing some weather wear, some spalling, due to the freeze thaw cycles," explained Clegg.

Since last summer, workers have been sealing the cracks and patching the blemishes. The cemetery's board of directors did not feel the process stopped there. They built a granite structure around the base of the tower and incorporated some niches for the veterans.

The tower is now surrounded by giant slabs of granite. Between them are three layers of niches, each with a polished granite front. Veterans and their spouses can have their remains put in the 231 spaces. For every niche bought, 3 percent goes to support Honor Flight Northwest Ohio in taking veterans to the war memorials in Washington D.C.

This undertaking cost around $100,000, but Clegg believes it was worth every penny.

"Our veterans are very important to us and we want them to be remembered," said Clegg.

The monument will officially be unveiled during the annual Memorial Day celebration next Monday at 9 a.m. at Toledo Memorial Park in Sylvania.

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