Export relocates multi-ton war memorial closer to downtown

It took most of the day on Thursday, but several regional contractors relocated the Export war memorial from the American Legion on Kennedy Avenue to spot near the Westmoreland Heritage Trail, closer to the borough’s downtown area.

Work crews from Mangery & Suns and McColly Memorials in Greensburg — the company that originally moved the monument from the former Export school building to the American Legion in the 1990s — brought the 12,000-pound granite monument and base roughly a half-mile down the road, where a work crew from Drnjevich Concrete has been working on its new home.

The area between the borough parking lot and Turtle Creek will be home to a variety of Export history, from the war memorial to what will soon be a replica of the borough’s former train station, which the Export Historical Society will fill with artifacts from the town’s 110-year history.

“This whole area around the base will be raised by about a foot, so you won’t see the (monument) footers,” said historical society member John Lukacs.

Lukacs and fellow society member Melanie Litz are carrying on a tradition related to the monument’s movement.

“We found a quarter and a penny from the year it was moved between the monument and the base,” Litz said. “We managed to find quarters and pennies from 2021 that we’re going to insert when they put it back together.”

After a lengthy struggle to line up the holes where steel bars will anchor the monument, it was finally set in place.

Two additional granite panels, which are set into the American Legion’s south-facing wall also will be relocated to the new memorial.

Borough officials are planning to dedicate the relocated monument on Memorial Day.