The only veterans memorial in West Chester outside Marshall Square Park needs an estimated $20,000 to $25,000 in repairs, and the 86-year-old former mayor who has been maintaining it by hand says he wants the borough to take over before he no longer can.

Tom Chambers, a U.S. Marine veteran and former West Chester mayor, told the Daily Local that the Greater West Chester Veterans Memorial and Garden of Honor at Gay and Adams streets is falling into disrepair 35 years after its November 11, 1990 dedication. The red flagstone bricks are eroding and need to be reset or replaced. The four teak benches need repair or replacement.

Chambers has been doing seasonal upkeep alongside the borough's Public Works Department for years, weeding, trimming hedges and power washing the granite walls. He estimated the full repair would cost $20,000 to $25,000 and would keep the site in good shape for another 25 to 30 years.

"This group grew from an idea and everybody got on board," Chambers said of the community effort that built the 2,000-square-foot site. "There was a lot of generosity."

The memorial was funded through a three-year community campaign that raised $44,142 from 525 individual donations, plus in-kind labor. State Rep. Elinor Z. Taylor secured an additional $5,000 state grant. Much of the money came through a "bucket brigade" of volunteers collecting cash at High and Market streets.

Councilman Bernie Flynn, the council's vice president representing the 6th Ward, has requested that the Parks and Recreation Department adopt the memorial as a "pocket park," which would place its maintenance formally under borough care. Flynn said he and a few friends would handle upkeep in the near term.

The memorial was first envisioned by Janet Thompson, who wanted to honor her brother, killed in a plane crash 125 miles off Nantucket Island. His body was never recovered. Thompson said before the memorial's 1990 dedication that there had been "no funeral, no marker, not anything" to recognize his sacrifice.