The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Veterans memorial project moving forward
The Carlisle Township Veterans Memorial project is moving forward as the typography was measured March 14 and donations continue to come in for the project.
The memorial will honor U.S. military veterans buried around Carlisle Township.
Tom Snezek, owner of Snezek and Associates in Cleveland, was hired to map the layout of the area just south of Carlisle Township Hall, 11969 LaGrange Road where the memorial will stand.
“Right now, I’m doing the base mapping and topographic mapping,” Snezek said. “Basically, we are doing a boundary survey where we lay out the lot.
“I’m here to do the mapping; I’m to do a detailed topographic map. When we’re done, we will set up the property pins and get it all set up for them.”
Snezek said he uses computer aided design to give his clients and architects property layouts.
“I give the architect (Jim Schilens, owner of Schilens and Associates of Westlake) a digital footprint, if you will, of the design,” he said. “It’s a layout of the existing conditions the architect and the client will have to work with for the memorial.”
Snezek said he basically is mapping the existing conditions.
“It factors in drainage,” he said. “I had an Ohio Utility Protection Service call, so you don’t make a mistake and cut an electric line.
“We’ll locate all the utilities and all the key major features. That’s my part of it; I establish the boundaries, do the map and then the architect takes over from there.”
Snezek was using a total station to map out the future memorial site.
“It’s called a total station, it replaces the old transits they used to use,” he said. “It’s all digital; it measures distance electronically and it measures angles. I have a tripod set up on the other side and we opened up a control box. Using all of those things will put you in the right position.”
Snezek said he really loves the idea for the project.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “I’m not a veteran myself, but I’m proud of these men for what they’ve done.
“While I’ve been doing this, two of them have been out here already asking about the project. So, I love the interest. I thanked
them for their service, like all of us do.
“I’m honored to do this project. It’s a pleasure.”
The architect
Schilens said he is looking forward to the project.
“I did the Lorain County Vietnam Veterans Memorial (625 N. Lake St.),” he said. “I designed that some years ago.
“For that one, we had the names etched into large blocks of granite.”
Schilens, looking ahead to the Carlisle project, said the project is really in the beginning stages.
“They have an initial design that they made into a model for the memorial,” he said. “I need to work to bring it into the construction phase and how it can actually be built.
“The process requires engineering work, and then we also need to think about how to make the memorial attractive. A lot of it has to do with the materials we decide to go with.”
Schilens said the monument is going to take a while before it becomes reality.
“Right now, we have Tom (Snezek) out their mapping out the draining and utilities,” he said. “The group wants to have it start in the spring, but we probably won’t be underway until around the summertime.”
The progress
Ray Hildebrandt, president of the Carlisle Township Veteran’s Memorial committee, who served in the U.S. Army from 195355 and is a retired Carlisle Township fire chief, said he likes how the project is progressing.
“We’ve done a good job
of raising money for it,” Hildebrandt said. “We have been selling bricks (that allow folks to inscribe a message for the memorial). We have been taking general donations and we’ve been selling the bricks that will be on the memorial.
The memorial will honor U.S. military veterans buried in Brookdale Cemetery, South Murray Ridge Cemetery and La Porte Cemetery.