Veterans Memorial Found On Mental Health Center Property

TINLEY PARK, IL — A filmmaker working on a documentary about the history, current dangers and controversy surrounding the abandoned and contaminated Tinley Park Mental Health Center property came across an apparently forgotten veterans memorial on the site while doing research and reviewing footage. Now, Tinley Park native and resident Chris Halper hopes to see the memorial removed from the property and placed more prominently elsewhere in the village.

Halper said he was about three months into his research on the Tinley Park Mental Health Center property, in late December or early January, when he discovered documents about a veterans memorial that had been placed on the property. He said the documents didn't note exactly where on the massive, 280-acre site the memorial was, and a number of visits to the site to gather footage did not reveal the memorial's location.

"But then, we were looking at some footage we shot out there one day and our cameraman got a shot of something," Halper said. "It was just a little speck of something, but I told him to rewind it and it turns out he actually got an obscure shot of it."

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The film team went to the location of where the footage came from the next day and, lo and behold, what they found was indeed the memorial they had been searching for.

There was "a little overgrowth" around it that had to be removed, Halper said. What was then revealed was an "8-foot granite rock" that had a section where it was apparent that a plaque had once been but was since removed.

The mystery of where the plaque went and what it said was short lived, though. Wiley Roberts, chairman of the Tinley Park Veterans Commission, has indicated he knows where the plaque is and it is "safe." He would neither share what it says on the plaque nor provide any indication on where it has been, however.

Both Halper and Roberts spoke on the subject during the Jan. 7 Tinley Park committee of the whole meeting. The topic begins around the 36:20 mark of the video.

An email sent to Halper from an attorney representing the state of Illinois and its Central Management Services department, which oversees the Mental Health Center property, initially indicated they would work with Halper on getting him legal access to the property to have the memorial removed. The Mental Health Center property has been on "a hard lockdown" since November, Central Management Services previously said in an email to Patch.

However, an email Halper received from the same attorney a day later indicated the state now plans to work directly with the village's Veterans Commission on the removal of the memorial from the property.

"We will let you know when the project is complete," the email from the attorney to Halper reads.

In a statement to Patch, CMS said Tuesday they are indeed "working with a Vietnam veteran, the Tinley Park Village and Tinley Park Veteran’s Commission to properly remove and relocate the veteran’s memorial from the former Tinley Park/Howe Mental Health Center property.

"This is an important monument designed and donated by former employees and veterans to honor all veterans and we are pleased we have identified a potential location where it can be fully enjoyed by the public."

Tinley Park Assistant Village Manager Pat Carr said the village has been aware of the memorial for some time.

"That plaque was removed years ago and we have been told that it is being held by a veterans group," Carr said. "The Tinley Park Veterans commission has offered to assist with the relocation of the memorial once the rock has been released from state property. As an Air Force retiree, I look forward to the rededication once we get the rock."

Halper said his research through the Tinley Park Historical Society turned up a document that showed the memorial was dedicated in 1996 to honor all veterans at the Howe Center and was started by Billy Wilkens, a Vietnam veteran himself and an employee of the Howe Center at the time. Another document shows the memorial was re-dedicated in 2004.

"It's a shame that it was forgotten about for 8 years (from the time the Howe Center closed in 2012 until it was found) and nobody did anything about it," Halper said.

Halper said he had already begun talks with a local construction company that he said was considering donating their resources to help remove the monument from the site. He was also prepared to donate 20 percent of the proceeds from the documentary to restoring the memorial, with "anything left over going to the American Legion, local VFW and Tinley Park Historical Society."

"All I wanted to do was have this veterans memorial donated to the village of Tinley Park so it could be rededicated and not forgotten about again."