Seventy seventh-grade students from Byron-Bergen High School, accompanied by their principal, assisted with planting trees in Hickory Park last Wednesday. Two hickory trees were planted there this year.
Students also read a proclamation on Arbor Day.
Bergen had taken a position years ago on creating green space and planting trees throughout the village. That and creating a Tree Board have earned them the designation as a Tree City, USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.
The annual Park Festival June 9 will provide an opportunity for the village to showcase Hickory Park when it dedicates a new veterans’ memorial after the noon parade.
The memorial will replace an existing monument installed more than 100 years ago and will honor veterans of all wars.
The new monument was suggested by Bergen resident Tom Williamson, a member of the Bergen American Legion. The Legion donated a stone marker of black stone from India, the same material as the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Support from the community includes $1,000 donations from the Bergen Business and Civic Association and Friends of Bergen.
The entrance to Hickory Park had to be changed dramatically and will only allow access into the parking lot. The new main entrance will be to the south of the basketball courts.
The village will create a brick walk of honor around the monument and will sell bricks in honor or in memory of loved ones or veterans.
The village Department of Public Works completed landscaping for the project.
