Quincy Veterans Memorial Sabey Data Centers steps up to help with improvements

QUINCY — The tiles on the wall honor veterans dating all the way back to the Civil War. It seems only right that the local service groups will get a little help from one of the largest data center companies in town in maintaining the Veterans Memorial Park in Quincy.

Actually they’ll get more than a little help. Sabey Construction Inc., the in-house construction company of Sabey Data Centers/Intergate Quincy, will oversee the improvement project to the veterans memorial. The project is expected to include four additional memorial walls 80 inches tall by 12 feet long, benches and improved lighting, as well as expansion to the wall space for nameplates carrying local names of veterans and active servicemen and women.

“We were down to where we only had room for eight more names on the two walls we have now,” VFW George Washington Post 24 quartermaster Mark Owens said. “We were looking for someone to help us. So for Sabey to jump in is just great. It really means a lot to us.”

Sabey Construction will partner with local businesses, along with George Washington Post 24 of the VFW, American Legion Post 183 and Amvets Post 777.

“The two walls we have, we have names on there from the Civil War until now. It’s an ongoing memorial to anybody that’s served,” Owens said, giving a little background and significance of the triangular park at the intersection of Highway 28 and Second Avenue Southeast. “It has all the veterans from the area, their tiles tell their experience and a little bit about them. This is to let the new generations know who participated in their freedom.”

The park was built in 2007 with funds provided by Yahoo!. Sabey Data Centers President John Sabey said this is not only a way to give something back to the community his data center has been a part of since 2011, it’s right thing to do.

“This was obviously a very worthy cause to get behind. But there is a very large portion of veterans that participate in our industry,” Sabey said. “Data centers are very regimented and handle a lot of security and infrastructure that is very important. If you were to look through our list of employees that work in our facilities, I would say have well over 50 percent, closer to 75 percent, are veterans. We’ve been very involved in a number of activities in this community and we felt this is a good way to support its efforts and expand the capacity significantly,”

The target date for completion is to have it ready for the annual Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Day festival the second weekend in September. Tiles honoring veterans and servicemembers will be sold for $80 apiece by the Quincy Chamber of Commerce. Financial aid is available for families who cannot afford the cost of a tile.

For more information, contact Owens at 509-750-0938.