ROCK ISLAND, Illinois— City Limits Bar and Grill hosted a breakfast fundraiser Thursday, December 8, to raise money to repair the Civil War Monument that once stood in front of the Rock Island County Courthouse.
The statue features the names of 450 soldiers from Rock Island County who served during the Civil war.
The monument tipped over back in 2014 causing chunks of the statue to break off, a committee was later formed by the Rock Island Sheriff’s Department in 2015 to manage the repairs.
The plan is to build a replica of the statue in bronze and to find a new home for the original.
“(The original statue) stood guard for 150 years so we’re going to get him some relief and his mirror, basically somebody else looking just like him,” says Ron Erickson from the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Office.
The committee hopes to raise $100,000 for the project, so far they have about $35,000.
Erickson says construction for the new monument will start one they raise $40,000.
