Memorial Day service in Belleville to be low-key, with no street closing

A short, quiet Memorial Day service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, May 31, at the Veterans’ Memorial on High Street in downtown Belleville.
John Blackstone, Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4434, said the event will not be the big ceremony it has been before COVID, but will be low-key, with no wreath laying and no street closing.
He said the VFW and the Polish Legion of American Veterans had held off on plans for Memorial Day this year because of the coronavirus and then the governor started loosening up the restrictions.
In the past, Memorial Day was marked with a ceremony that included folding chairs on a closed High Street for the public, food, music, wreath laying, names read of those veterans who died over the past year with a hand bell rung for each name, and stories about local veterans whose names are on the monument.