HIGHLAND PARK, IL — City and park district officials are set to convene a meeting Tuesday of the working group planning a place of remembrance for the 2022 shooting.
Scheduled for 7 p.m. at the pre-conference room at City Hall, it is the first place of remembrance planning meeting since May 1.
Officials are scheduled to discuss the process for hiring public engagement consultants, whose firms were evaluated earlier this summer, according to the meeting agenda.
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Formed in late 2023, the working group includes Mayor Nancy Rotering, Councilmember Anthony Blumberg, City Manager Ghida Neukirch, Resiliency Manager Madeline Kati, Park District Executive Director Brian Romes and Josselyn Community Engagement Manager Gaby Valverde Strobehn.
Its work is expected to continue through 2026, and has focused on incorporating public feedback and approaching the planning process in a trauma-informed manner, according to city officials.
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Six potential locations for the memorial have been evaluated by the working group, but only two were included on an updated list of site options: the Rose Garden adjacent to City Hall — where a temporary memorial currently stands and will remain in place until a permanent one is established — and Port Clinton Plaza.
The memorial will honor the seven paradegoers killed during the July 4, 2022, mass shooting: Katherine Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy, Jacquelyn Sundheim, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, Stephen Straus and Eduardo Uvaldo.
A local man charged with their murder and the attempted murder of 48 other people wounded in the shooting is due to stand trial in February. In June, he told his attorneys he had agreed to plead guilty but declined to do so at a planned sentencing hearing.
City staff have researched memorials for other mass shooting incidents, including how much they cost and how fundraising was managed.
Examples range from the $75 million memorial for the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the $7-10 million memorial funded by the public and foundations to the victims of the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas and the $120,000 in public and private financing for a memorial for the shooting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
Earlier: Highland Park Shooting Memorial Locations Considered By Committee
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