LOWVILLE — The wait is over for the village’s 129-year-old Civil War statue, which returned home after a year-long restoration project at McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory Inc., Oberlin, Ohio.

On the village green at West and North State streets, workers set to installing the base and framework for the statue early this morning. They expected to have the 38-foot tall structure completed by 1 p.m.

Repairs were necessary as the structure suffered from multiple cracks and deterioration, caused partially from a $10,000 restoration project in 1988 that filled the hollow zinc statue with concrete.

Years of fundraising efforts by Save Our Statue, chaired by Charlotte M. Beagle, and a $142,965 grant from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation made the restoration project possible.

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