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Memorial Day parade route changing in Western Springs
Updated: April 15, 2013 10:38AM
WESTERN SPRINGS — In an effort to avoid train-related tragedies, the route of the village’s Memorial Day parade will change this year to keep all activities north of the Burlington Northern railroad tracks.
Chuck Bosko, commander of Western Springs Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10778, said the accident last fall in Texas where four people were killed at a veterans parade got him and other post leaders thinking about steps to make the local parade safer.
“We thought we would maybe see if we could take a different route,” Bosko said. “We want to keep everything north of the tracks.”
The parade, which had started at Spring Rock Park in the past, will now start near the Western Springs Recreation Center and The Theatre of Western Springs. The route will stay north of the tracks and turn north on Lawn Avenue. The route will then remain the same as in previous years: west on Chestnut Avenue, south on Grand Avenue and end at Hillgrove Avenue and the Tower Green for a Memorial Day ceremony.
Western Springs officials gave the route change their approval at Monday’s Village Board meeting.
In the November accident in Midland, Texas, four veterans were killed when a train slammed into a flatbed tractor-trailer used as a float. The truck had stopped on the tracks and was unable to move when a speeding train approached as the truck was up against another tractor-trailer.
