NEWS
Madison selected for first of fifty states’ 9-11 memorials
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by Liv Swenson
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
A World Trade Center memorial committee has selected Madison to host a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and plans for the memorial are underway.
Since May 2002, the World Trade Center 9-11 Pen-T Memorial Committee, based in Sherwood, Wisc., has worked to construct a Sept. 11 memorial in every U.S. capitol city.
The committee faces obstacles in creating a Madison memorial, especially regarding the site’s location.
The city will not allow a memorial in Capitol Square due to the square’s lack of open space, and the city moratorium on additional city monuments further aggravates the problem.
Since Capitol Square was denied as host location for the memorial, city parks are now the committee’s prime site possibilities.
The committee has not yet selected a park for the memorial, but the park commission proposal for the monument’s construction “is in the mail,” according to George Ecker, communications director and treasurer of the committee.
Melanie Conklin, spokesperson for the Madison mayor’s office, said that before a site is chosen and construction begins, both the city parks committee and the City Council must approve the measure.
Four tons of debris acquired from ground zero in New York City will go into the memorial.
For nine months, committee chair Barbara Jack and Ecker contacted congressmen, New York landfill staff, and President George W. Bush for help in obtaining the 20 feet of steel I-beams that were finally given to the committee in January of 2003.
The steel will be cut and worked into the design of the two granite, stainless steel and concrete towers, to include the engraved names of victims with strong ties to Wisconsin, along with fire department, police and rescue worker insignias.
A 13-foot concrete base in the shape of a pentagon will form the towers’ foundation.
Since the acquisition of the materials, people touched by the WTC bombings have demonstrated strong support for the memorial.
“People, including relatives of victims, have been calling to just come see and touch it,” Ecker said.
Ecker also said interest in the group and the memorial has increased due to the upcoming anniversary of the attacks.
“[The attacks] are a worthy event to memorialize, but everyone deals with it in different ways,” Conklin said.
She called the memorial “a sensitive, emotional issue” for all Americans, and said it is important to have the opinions of the citizens of Madison before anything is finalized.
“We want to hear the reactions of Madison citizens to determine what’s right,” Conklin said.
Conklin said the monument’s $250,000 construction would be a long process.
Miron Construction of Appleton is the chosen contractor for the first of the two memorials in Madison and Des Moines, Iowa. Miron is donating the labor for both projects.
Greg Shuh, owner of Darboy Stone and assistant project manager of the memorial committee, is donating the engraved granite faces.
The long-term goal of the committee is to have one such monument in states’ capitols with victims from each respective state engraved on the granite faces.
“We have to remember this terrible tragedy forever,” Ecker said.
