CENTERVILLE, Ill. – The emotions are still raw for Centreville Lt. Gregory Jonas’ widow, Viola Jonas.
“I’m still like, numb. I know it’s been years, but it still hits me here,” she said.
Jonas, a 15-year vet for Centreville Police, was responding to a call on June 2, 2009, when he was shot and killed.
“I just lost it. There was nothing else I could do. I’m just hurt and sad. I’m sad. I’m just sad,” Viola said.
Earlier this year, Viola called the city to try and have a street memorial sign put up in her husband’s honor. But she says it has been weeks since she has gotten any kind of update, so she called FOX 2.
“I’ve just been going here and going there, talking and talking, and nothing’s happening. So, I’m still waiting here,” she said.
After FOX 2 started calling city officials Friday, Jonas got a call back.
One official told her she needed to fill out an IDOT application, but the city directed her to an application for a memorial for people who died in a fatal car accident, which is not how Gregory died. The city also offered to put up a sign on 47th Street and Tudor Avenue, but Viola says she wants the sign on Bond Avenue because it is a more visible location.
As Bond Avenue is a state road, FOX 2 reached out to IDOT.
Public Information Officer Paul Wappel told us, “The typical procedure for a roadway memorial designation is to have a state legislator introduce a joint resolution officially designating a portion of a state route for an individual or group. Once the joint resolution is adopted by both houses of the state legislature, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) would work with the resolution sponsor(s) to have the memorial signs fabricated and installed.”
There is another option, too. The Cahokia Heights City Council can write and adopt its own resolution. IDOT would then work with this city to have a sign placed on a state road, as long as it is within city limits and meets certain standards.
Now, FOX 2 is putting Viola in touch with the right people so she can continue her fight to memorialize the man she loved.
“He always came home happy. I never had no problems with him. The kids loved him, he was just here for me. I just–I loved him,” she said.
