Work resumes at Obama Presidential Center construction site
Nov 15, 2022, 11:28 PM | Updated: Nov 16, 2022, 1:35 pm
FILE - Former President Barack Obama points to a rendering for the former president's lakefront presidential center at a community event at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago on May 3, 2017. A federal judge on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent the construction of the Obama Presidential Center in a park on Chicago's South Side. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
CHICAGO (AP) — Construction has resumed of the Obama Presidential Center, nearly a week after it was halted when a noose was found at the site on Chicago’s South Side, the group building it said Wednesday.
“Over the last several days, all staff and onsite workers have participated in anti-bias training. Additional safety and security measures have also been implemented. Today, we are resuming all construction operations onsite,” Lakeside Alliance, a partnership of Black-owned construction companies, said in a statement.
Police are still investigating the Nov. 10 incident. No one has been charged.
Lakeside Alliance has offered a $100,000 reward to help find who was responsible.
The center is expected to open in 2025.
It will sit in Jackson Park, near the Obama family home and where the former president started his political career.
The city will own the center under the terms of a 2018 ordinance approved by the City Council.
The initial cost was projected at $500 million, but documents released by the Obama Foundation last summer showed the cost had climbed to roughly $830 million. Funds are being raised through private donations.
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