9-11 Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony Fulfills Dream

9-11 memorial groundbreaking ceremony fulfills dream
The Green Bay Fire Department color guard parades past a row of shovels prior to the 9-11 groundbreaking on Friday (photo by Tina M. Gohr).
By Adam HardyNews-ChronicleWhat began as one woman's dream took its first steps toward becoming a reality on Friday as representatives from the city and state gathered along with police, firefighters and Green Bay residents at the Neville Public Museum to break ground for the WTC 9-11 Memorial.
Heralded by a full-color guard procession and the national anthem sung by Jill Cocian, family members of victims who were lost in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, turned the first shovels full of dirt at the site where the 34-foot monument will stand.
The memorial began as an idea shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when Barb Jack, president of the three-member 9-11 memorial committee, said she thought of the monument when she saw the amount of wreckage at Ground Zero in New York City.
"I just didn't like seeing all that debris being thrown onto a heap pile," Jack said. "I thought I could do something else with it. I wanted to take some of that debris and put it in every state, for the families that couldn't get out to New York."
Six months after writing to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in December 2001, Jack said she received a call from Ground Zero representatives.
"They called and asked me, 'What do you want to do with it?'" Jack said.
But according to George Ecker, vice president and secretary-treasurer for the memorial committee, things didn't work out quite so easily as Jack had expected.
"She (Jack) was promised hundreds of tons of debris for the project," Ecker said. "But she wasn't getting it. Suddenly, they couldn't find anything for her."
Ecker, a communications professor and longtime friend of Jack, decided to come on board in May 2002 to help negotiate with Ground Zero representatives for the necessary materials.
"For six months, all I did was contact every junkyard and place that I thought there could be some source," Ecker said. "But they were selling (the salvage) overseas and barges of it left the country."
After speaking with the former and current mayors of New York, along with representatives of the White House and "almost every single member of Congress in the United States," Ecker said he arranged for a spot on "The Late Show" with David Letterman. Shortly thereafter, Ecker found success.
"Finally on October 6, I received an e-mail that said, 'How much do you need,'" Ecker said. "I still have that, and I'm planning on framing it."
In January 2003, the salvage was brought to Wisconsin, where it was stored until a site could be found to erect the proposed memorial.
Again, the process was not an easy one.
According to Paul Vander Heyden, memorial committee member and project construction manager, the materials sat in storage for more than two years while the committee searched for a location for the memorial.
"It was a real battle getting a site," Vander Heyden said.
Jack's original vision was to have a memorial located in every state capital in the United States, which meant building the first site in Madison. But that was not to be.
"Madison, being such a radical town, after much litigation decided that they didn't want any part of it," said Vander Heyden.
The council contacted Appleton and Menasha, to no avail, before reaching Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and Ald. Guy Zima.
"Zima jumped on the idea with two feet and Mayor Schmitt wanted the memorial really bad, and they worked with the City Council to help us get it there," Vander Heyden said. "So that is how it wound up in Green Bay."
The memorial, the first of its kind to be built in the United States, will be placed on the site that was recently occupied by The Receiver statue, which for years was located outside the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame.
"Politically it is not easy to move a Packers statue, let me tell you," Schmitt said at the groundbreaking. "But it was the right thing to do. É It is going to show the country what kind of city we are."
Other speakers at the groundbreaking included U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, and Chris Lyons, a search and rescue volunteer worker at Ground Zero from the morning of Sept. 11 until cleanup of the site concluded May 30, 2002.
"I, as a representative of New York, am proud to stand with all of you as we take another opportunity to remember, honor, and preserve the memory of those who lost their lives and to mourn with their loved ones," Lyons said.
The groundbreaking concluded with a moment of silence and the exit procession of the color guard. The memorial, which will feature two 30-foot illuminated stainless steel towers and a 15-foot-wide, pentagonal granite base with the 3,030 Sept. 11 victims engraved on it, is scheduled for completion in late May.

Work Proceeds on 9-11 Memorial

Work proceeds on 9-11 memorial
The Post-Crescent
KAUKAUNA — A project in the works for more than three years to commemorate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is taking shape.The first of two towers to be erected at the Dousman Street WTC 9/11 Pen-t Memorial site in Green Bay received final touches Wednesday at Bassett Mechanical. The second stainless steel tubular tower will go through a manufacturing process in the next week.The structures, 30 feet long by 24 inches wide, will be installed May 16, with a dedication ceremony on June 1 in Green Bay.

In the early stages of the projects, WTC 9/11 Pen-t Memorial Inc. secured two tons of debris from World Trade Center site in New York. The Calumet County-based nonprofit organization, in charge of memorial projects in several states, will distribute pieces of that debris at memorial sites, in places such as Portland, Ore., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Springfield, Ill.At Green Bay, a 36-inch-long piece of WTC debris will be mounted on the front side of the memorial base.The towers will sit on a pentagon-shaped base measuring 15 feet wide by 4 feet high. It will contain granite-faced stone slabs with the engraved names of the 3,030 victims.

Sept. 11 Victims' Kin Slam Memorial Plan

Sept. 11 victims' kin slam memorial plan
BY LISA MUÑOZDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A group of Long Island families of Sept. 11 victims has launched a protest against the design of the World Trade Center Memorial.
The relatives believe the planned memorial, Reflecting Absence, would not properly honor their loved ones.
"It's not remembering the 3,000 people who died," said Matt Walsh, one of about two dozen protesters who gathered last Thursday in front of the Perry B. Duryea state office building on Veterans Highway to dramatize their concern over the design of Reflecting Absence.
Walsh, whose 27-year-old firefighter son Mike Brennan died in the attacks, added, "And the silly tower they want to build is just a target for more terrorists."
Reflecting Absence has been praised by Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and architecture critics.
One of the protesters' chief complaints is that the "footprints" of the two towers would be covered with two reflecting pools.
The relatives said they are also angry that some of the victims' remains are still at Fresh Kills landfill and that the names of the deceased will be listed in random order at the memorial.
"They're going to bury it and cover up the places where our loved ones died," said Rosemary Cain, who handed out prayer cards with a photo of her deceased firefighter son George.
Joanna Rose, a Lower Manhattan Development Corp. spokeswoman, said the agency continues to meet regularly with family members. "[The design] has gone to great lengths to provide access to the box beams and both footprints," she said.
Still, the design does not sit well with Michael Burke, whose brother, Fire Capt. William Burke, died when he stayed behind with two men unable to leave Tower 1.
Burke likened the planned memorial to The Gates, the recent art installation in Central Park. "To me, it's a tribute to narcissism" and nothingness, said Burke, overcome with emotion. "It's dull. It's depressing. It's cold-hearted intellectualism." Originally published on May 9, 2005

Family's Yard Hosts WTC Memorial Mock-Up

Family's yard hosts WTC memorial mock-up

The backyard of a family in Richmond Hill, Ont., north of Toronto, is hosting a scale model of the controversial World Trade Center memorial.
Dan Euser's family is playing host to the 10-metre high, 12-metre wide, $175,000 US mock-up for professional reasons.
His firm, Dan Euser Waterarchitecture, is a consultant to the main design team for the project. Some of his other work includes Toronto's Dundas Square and fountains for former U.S. President Bill Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas.
"We have to do this full size. This is really unique and because it's the Trade Center, I said, 'OK, over in the backyard'," Euser told CTV News.
Maureen Baznicki appeared overwhelmed when she came upon the scale model. Baznicki lost her husband, Ken, in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"I'm so happy that you are part of this tribute to him," she told Euser.
The designers of the monument chose water to be its hallmark because universally, water is seen to be cleansing and healing.
While some parts of the plan to redevelop the World Trade Center site are mired in controversy, the memorial's broader concept of "Reflecting Absence" is still on.
The model isn't just to show how the memorial will look; it is also meant to show how it will sound and feel.
There is a mock-up, more than eight metres tall, of the water walls ringing the voids marking the twin towers' absence.
"You just come from sidewalk level and you see this huge void and water crashing down from all sides and going into this space," Euser said.
He has been working since January to get a combination of various factors right.
His goal is to create a veil of water that won't:
splash visitors;
disintegrate in the wind;
make too much noise;
freeze in winter; and
clog up in the fall when leaves are falling.
The state of New York held an update on the memorial project on Thursday.
What people saw weren't thin sheets of water but more sharply defined vertical bands spaced just under four centimetres apart.
"It's an incredibly graceful and delicate way to do it on an enormous scale," Douglas Ross Findlay, the project's landscape architect, told reporters.
"It's a magical moment to see it realized," said Michael Arad of Handel Architects. "The way the water is behaving is incredible. It makes it feel somehow more real, as if you're moving forward."
The design team said the mock-up was necessary because water can't be "scaled" -- meaning how a water-based installation will behave in real life is different from a small-scale model of it.
The project has raised the ire of some of his neighbors, who say Euser has no permit and has violated zoning regulations for his suburban neighborhood.
The model will come down by winter, but one neighbour has already spent $15,000 trying to fight the four storey structure.
"All that comes to my mind is the amount of costs I'm incurring just to get the city to consent to make sure that this does not become an industrial use area," said neighbour Harry Harakh.
Despite the hassles, Euser likes the professional challenge and feels lucky to be part of the project.
"It's a privilege to be part of the healing process," he said.
"I couldn't believe it when they gave me the nod for this thing because that's the last thing I expected."
Based on a report from CTV's Ravi Baichwal in Toronto

9-11 Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony Fulfills Dream

9-11 memorial groundbreaking ceremony fulfills dream

The Green Bay Fire Department color guard parades past a row of shovels prior to the 9-11 groundbreaking on Friday (photo by Tina M. Gohr).
By Adam HardyNews-ChronicleWhat began as one woman's dream took its first steps toward becoming a reality on Friday as representatives from the city and state gathered along with police, firefighters and Green Bay residents at the Neville Public Museum to break ground for the WTC 9-11 Memorial.
Heralded by a full-color guard procession and the national anthem sung by Jill Cocian, family members of victims who were lost in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, turned the first shovels full of dirt at the site where the 34-foot monument will stand.
The memorial began as an idea shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when Barb Jack, president of the three-member 9-11 memorial committee, said she thought of the monument when she saw the amount of wreckage at Ground Zero in New York City.
"I just didn't like seeing all that debris being thrown onto a heap pile," Jack said. "I thought I could do something else with it. I wanted to take some of that debris and put it in every state, for the families that couldn't get out to New York."
Six months after writing to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in December 2001, Jack said she received a call from Ground Zero representatives.
"They called and asked me, 'What do you want to do with it?'" Jack said.
But according to George Ecker, vice president and secretary-treasurer for the memorial committee, things didn't work out quite so easily as Jack had expected.
"She (Jack) was promised hundreds of tons of debris for the project," Ecker said. "But she wasn't getting it. Suddenly, they couldn't find anything for her."
Ecker, a communications professor and longtime friend of Jack, decided to come on board in May 2002 to help negotiate with Ground Zero representatives for the necessary materials.
"For six months, all I did was contact every junkyard and place that I thought there could be some source," Ecker said. "But they were selling (the salvage) overseas and barges of it left the country."
After speaking with the former and current mayors of New York, along with representatives of the White House and "almost every single member of Congress in the United States," Ecker said he arranged for a spot on "The Late Show" with David Letterman. Shortly thereafter, Ecker found success.
"Finally on October 6, I received an e-mail that said, 'How much do you need,'" Ecker said. "I still have that, and I'm planning on framing it."
In January 2003, the salvage was brought to Wisconsin, where it was stored until a site could be found to erect the proposed memorial.
Again, the process was not an easy one.
According to Paul Vander Heyden, memorial committee member and project construction manager, the materials sat in storage for more than two years while the committee searched for a location for the memorial.
"It was a real battle getting a site," Vander Heyden said.
Jack's original vision was to have a memorial located in every state capital in the United States, which meant building the first site in Madison. But that was not to be.
"Madison, being such a radical town, after much litigation decided that they didn't want any part of it," said Vander Heyden.
The council contacted Appleton and Menasha, to no avail, before reaching Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and Ald. Guy Zima.
"Zima jumped on the idea with two feet and Mayor Schmitt wanted the memorial really bad, and they worked with the City Council to help us get it there," Vander Heyden said. "So that is how it wound up in Green Bay."
The memorial, the first of its kind to be built in the United States, will be placed on the site that was recently occupied by The Receiver statue, which for years was located outside the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame.
"Politically it is not easy to move a Packers statue, let me tell you," Schmitt said at the groundbreaking. "But it was the right thing to do. É It is going to show the country what kind of city we are."
Other speakers at the groundbreaking included U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, and Chris Lyons, a search and rescue volunteer worker at Ground Zero from the morning of Sept. 11 until cleanup of the site concluded May 30, 2002.
"I, as a representative of New York, am proud to stand with all of you as we take another opportunity to remember, honor, and preserve the memory of those who lost their lives and to mourn with their loved ones," Lyons said.
The groundbreaking concluded with a moment of silence and the exit procession of the color guard. The memorial, which will feature two 30-foot illuminated stainless steel towers and a 15-foot-wide, pentagonal granite base with the 3,030 Sept. 11 victims engraved on it, is scheduled for completion in late May.

First Tower of 9/11 Memorial Constructed

First tower of 9/11 memorial constructed
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

KAUKAUNA — A project in the works for more than three years to commemorate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is taking shape.

The first of two towers to be erected at the Dousman Street WTC 9/11 Pen-t Memorial site in Green Bay received final touches this week at Bassett Mechanical. The second stainless-steel tubular tower will go through a manufacturing process in the next week.

The structures, 30 feet long by 24 inches wide, will be installed May 16, with a dedication ceremony June 1 in Green Bay.

In the early stages of the projects, the Calumet County-based nonprofit organization WTC 9/11 Pen-t Memorial Inc. secured two tons of debris from World Trade Center site in New York. At Green Bay, a 36-inch-long piece of WTC debris will be mounted on the front side of the memorial base.

The towers will sit on a pentagon-shaped base measuring 15 feet wide by 4 feet high. It will contain granite-faced stone slabs with the engraved names of the 3,030 victims.

Garden of Reflection Clears Major Hurdles

05/11/2005
Garden of Reflection clears major hurdle; project ready to go out for bid
By: JEFF WERNER

Plans for a Bucks County 9-11 memorial cleared a major hurdle last week when the Lower Makefield Board of Supervisors gave their blessing to the memorial's final design and authorized placing the memorial project out for bid.

The memorial, also known as the Garden of Reflection, will celebrate the lives of the 3,000 people who were killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and particularly the 17 who had ties to Bucks County. It will be built at Memorial Park on Woodside Road. A thunderous round of applause greeted the unanimous vote cast by the five-member board of supervisors. The vote followed a presentation by Yardley-based architect Liuba Lashchyk on the memorial's latest design."This will be a place of reflection, not only for those that we lost, but for the future," said supervisor Grace Godshalk, whose own son, William, was killed at the World Trade Center.Godshalk, choked with emotion, noted that her son would have turned 39 last Wednesday, just two days after the vote. Ironically, she said, it had also been 39 months since the group of local survivors met at the future memorial site and began their quest to build the garden memorial.Ellen Saracini, whose husband, Victor, piloted one of the ill-fated planes, expressed relief and exuberance following the decision."Yes!" she exclaimed. "All the other steps have been baby steps. We're on a different level now. It's like we've reached the top. It's going to happen.""Today, for the first time, I can see passed everything," added Clara Chirchirillo, who lost her husband in the terrorist attacks. "I am so thrilled," she said. "It's not a dream anymore."Saracini said she felt like a weight had been lifted."We've been really feeling it hard and it's been building up," said Saracini. "Now I feel so much lighter, so much better. We're definitely going to start construction. It's going to be good. That's a reason to celebrate."According to Lashchyk, the memorial will feature a series of concentric circles, representing eternity, all leading visitors on a spiral journey through life and continuing into an inner circle where a twin fountain, representing the towers of the World Trade Center, will represent healing and rebirth."The memorial itself has been created as a memorial journey," said Lashchyk.Upon entering the memorial, visitors will pass by a fragment of the World Trade Center, which gives a sense of authenticity to the journey. They will then pass through a gateway opening into the open space of the garden. As they continue around the path they will pass a continuous stainless steel rail holding glass panels containing the names of 3,000 souls. "As we pass that we can sense the magnitude of the event," said Lashchyk.Arriving at the center, or the core of the memorial, visitors will find a circle of water with twin fountains shooting skyward. Embracing the circular core will be a semi-circular rail with glass panels listing the names of the 17 Bucks County souls taken on September 11th."We're trying to create not just a historical reminder of what happen, but a place of hope -- one that combines the need to reflect on the loss of life but also on the need to have hope for the future," said Lashchyk.The outer most concentric ring will be made up of 17 shade trees, one for each of the souls from Bucks County lost in the attack. "The trees symbolize rebirth and provide hope," said Lashchyk.The memorial will be paid for entirely through private contributions, donations and governmental grants raised and obtained by the Garden of Reflection Committee. Lower Makefield Township is donating $1 million toward the project for the installation of a service road and to bring utilities onto the site.Bids for the construction of the memorial are expected to be awarded sometime this summer with construction to begin soon after. Completion could happen as early as next spring.Saracini said her committee is currently searching for general contractors who may be interested in donating their services toward the project. "It would be really nice if we could get a general contractor who was gung-ho and really wanted to see it through," she said.To assist in the realization of the Garden of Reflection, tax-deductible contributions may be sent to: 9-11 Memorial Construction Fund, 1100 Edgewood Road, Yardley 19067. For information, visit www.9-11memorialgarden.org.***Serving on the Garden of Reflection Committee are Ellen Saracini, Tara Bane, Grace Godshalk, Clara Chirchirillo, William H. Kelly, Sr., Jim McCaffrey (owner of McCaffrey's Market), Eric Stark (Lower Bucks YMCA) and Joe Amodei (Special Events coordinator).###

Artist Engraves Panels for 9/11 Memorial

Artist Engraves Panels for 9/11 MemorialMay 16, 2005, 8:45 AM

We got a first look at the engraving designs for Green Bay's 9/11 memorial Friday.
The first two granite panels with the victims' names were unveiled in Neenah. Designs for an eagle, flag, and dove were also on display, and artist Brian Herres demonstrated how he engraved the other panels.
The two 30-foot steel columns representing the World Trade Center's twin towers will be erected Monday at the memorial site, which is near the Neville Public Museum along the Fox River in Green Bay.

Architect unveils 9/11 Memorial Prototype

Architect unveils 9/11 memorialPrototype constructed in back yardMay 15, 2005
Linda Johnson, Staff Writer

For centuries to come, the waterfall that Dan Euser designed will help mark the place where 2,752 people were killed in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
But, for now, the prototype for the largest artificial waterfall in the world is in his back yard in Richmond Hill.

"This will be a surprise to a lot of people," the designer said at a press conference Friday giving the local media its first look at the spectacular feature in operation.

The wooden structure is a 8.23-metre (27-foot) mock-up of one corner of the memorial that will be built on the site of the World Trade Center, destroyed by a terrorist attack.

"I'm very humble to even be part of the healing process. I couldn't believe it when they gave me the nod," said Mr. Euser, who said he turns on the waterfall for about three hours every two weeks to test a modification.
The mock-up was built to determine how the wind and freezing temperatures would alter the look of the water as it falls, said Mr. Euser, a landscape architect by trade. Architects and designers also wanted to learn how to control the sound and spray.

Such an experiment must be done to full scale because water changes according to the distance it has to fall. Mr. Euser said he did not want to compromise the project in any way.

In all, there will be 1,800 linear feet of waterfall.

The memorial, Reflecting Absence, consists of two large squares below the towers, with the top of the waterfall level with the street. On each side, visitors will walk down to an area that includes a large square pool ringed with the waterfall. The names of those killed in the attack will appear on a wall behind the falls.

"You come from sidewalk level and see this huge void. Then, you see the water crashing down," said Mr. Euser, who agreed water can be soothing.

"It's so cleansing. I think that's part of it. Water is used in so many ways. It's so beautiful. I love working with it. And the sound can be very powerful," he said. "But it knocks out all the other sounds."

While some design changes have been made, including the installation of rounded weirs -- the structures that send the water out -- there remains other challenges to work out.
"This is still a work in progress. We want to make sure we have the best show possible," Mr. Euser said.

Mr. Euser is one of only two water feature designers in North America. His company has designed water features for the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Milwaukee Art Museum, a Lego theme park on Germany, the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston and Disney theme parks around the world. In Canada, he designed water projects at the Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto and the $4.5-million waterfront centre in Hamilton.
The structure will be in his yard until end of October.

'I'll be glad to get my garden back," he said,
To see the fountain design, visit www.wtcsitememorial.org

Latest 9/11 Memorial Unveiled on Brooklyn Pier with Pro Bono Help from Chadbourne

Latest 9/11 Memorial Unveiled on Brooklyn Pier With Pro Bono Help From Chadbourne

NEW YORK, May 16 /PRNewswire/ --

The international law firm of Chadbourne& Parke LLP assisted Brooklyn Remembers Inc., a New York City community non-profit group, in its successful efforts to erect a memorial to the Brooklynvictims of 9/11. The memorial was unveiled today. Brooklyn Remembers Inc., formed by Brooklyn community members and advisedby local politicians in the wake of 9/11, unveiled a 25-foot memorial monumentnamed the Beacon. The Beacon resembles an 18th century speaking trumpet usedby firefighters of that time and features a light that will shine for twohours every night on Veteran's Pier at 69th Street in Bay Ridge. The locationhas a perfect view of lower Manhattan and the Statute of Liberty from whichthe World Trade Center was clearly visible. Chadbourne, acting on a pro bono basis, drafted and helped negotiatecontracts and facilitated the permit process between BRI, the artist and thecity. The Firm also helped the group hold a competition to pick thememorial's artist and drafted a contract with the city. "We are glad to have been able to give our pro bono support to thisworthwhile endeavor," said Chadbourne Managing Partner Charles K. O'Neill,himself a Brooklyn resident. "It is part of our continuing efforts since 2001to give 9/11-related groups and charities the help they need." Chadbourne's pro bono practice, headed by partner Bernard McCarthy, hadthree associates work on the Brooklyn Remembers project for months. This hasincluded at different times, Dede Jawde, Abigail Caplovitz and StaceyWinograd. Partner Peter Ingerman supervised the team. This pro bono effort was Chadbourne's latest on 9/11-related work. Lastyear, the New York Disaster Interfaith Services honored Chadbourne for itsdonations to the 9/11 recovery group. After 9/11, the Firm also housed members of the City's Law Department, didpro bono work for 9/11 victims, including family members of victims in making9/11 Victims Compensation Fund applications, and gave over $300,000 indonations to five 9/11-related charities. In November 2001, the Firm established the Chadbourne & Parke Foundationin response to the events of September 11th. The purpose of the Foundation isto make donations to charitable organizations that provide financialassistance to families and individuals impacted by the World Trade Centerattack who might not otherwise receive the help they need. While the Firmrecognized that many organizations and individuals were providing financialand other forms of assistance to victims of the September 11th attacks, theFirm believed that there were victims with critical needs which were not beingmet. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg honored the Firm by proclaimingMay 17, 2002, "Chadbourne & Parke Day" -- in recognition of its efforts inhousing more than 100 attorneys and staff of the law department after theiroffices were rendered uninhabitable due to the 9/11 attacks. About Chadbourne & Parke LLP Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in NewYork City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers andacquisitions, securities, project finance, corporate finance, energy,telecommunications, commercial and products liability litigation, securitieslitigation and regulatory enforcement, white collar defense, intellectualproperty, antitrust, domestic and international tax, reinsurance andinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring,employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters.The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston,Moscow, Kyiv, Warsaw (through a Polish partnership), Beijing and amultinational partnership, Chadbourne & Parke, in London. For additionalinformation, visit chadbourne.com .
SOURCE Chadbourne & Parke LLPWeb Site: http://www.chadbourne.com

Westchester seeks more money for 9/11 Memorial

Westchester seeks more money for 9/11 memorial
By KEITH EDDINGSTHE JOURNAL NEWS(Original Publication: May 17, 2005)
WHITE PLAINS —

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano's chief adviser visited the Board of Legislators yesterday to ask for an additional $200,000 to build a memorial to the local victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. Along with preliminary approval for the money, she got another scolding about how the project has been handled.

The reprimand came even after the adviser, Susan Tolchin, said the overruns had been trimmed from $700,000 to $500,000 by minor redesigns and low bids. She said a private fundraising drive has raised $300,000 in cash and pledges so far, and added that she and Spano "fully anticipate" the effort will additionally cover the county's full share of the cost, now expected to be $350,000. The state also is kicking $50,000 into the project, which is now expected to cost a total of $700,000.

In the meantime, Tolchin asked the legislators for $200,000 on top of the $150,000 the board already approved to cover the overruns.

The overruns occurred when engineers discovered the memorial would have to be built with steel, not cable as originally planned, if it is to stand. Meeting jointly, three committees approved the extra money and sent the request to the full board for a final vote Monday.

Before the votes, two legislators criticized the overruns and other elements of the project; one praised the effort.

"The administration has mishandled this from Day One," Martin Rogowsky, D-Harrison, told Tolchin. He said architects who stuck by the rules for the competition to design the memorial, which capped costs at $200,000, ended up competing against a design that will cost more than three times as much.

The memorial will be composed of 109 steel rods, one for each county resident killed in the attacks, which will rise from a circular base and intertwine like a maypole to form a slim, 80-foot tower. It was designed by Frederic Schwartz of Manhattan.

"We were all very upset by the increases," Tolchin responded. She noted that a memorial and other buildings at the site of the attack in Manhattan also have gone through costly redesigns.
The Westchester memorial will be built on Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. Spano will hold a news conference at the site today to introduce the company that will build it.

Valley 9-11 Memorial Rises

Valley 9-11 memorial rises

Twin Towers icon stirs emotions in workers, residents
By Karen Rauen Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

GREEN BAY — The identical stainless steel towers, stretching 30 feet, shimmered as a crane lifted them, one by one, from a flatbed trailer and guided them to their position in a monument. “It’s going to be beautiful, isn’t it?” Deborah Kalishek of Green Bay said Monday as the towers were mounted on a base shaped like the Pentagon. Located near the Neville Museum just south of the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge, Green Bay’s new Sept. 11 memorial is just more than two weeks shy of completion.Engraved granite carrying the names of victims who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania and Virginia, including 16 people who had ties to Wisconsin have yet to be mounted on the memorial.The monument has been three years in the making, said George Ecker, Stockbridge resident and vice president of Fox Valley-based nonprofit organization WTC 9/11 Pen-T Memorials.“This is an exciting time,” Ecker said.Green Bay’s memorial is the first of several the organization hopes to erect across the country. A 34-inch piece of Ground Zero debris will be situated in front of the base. “I think it’s nice to have these kinds of memorials and this is a good place for it,” Kalishek said.

Remembering the Sept. 11 terrorist attack triggers emotion for the Green Bay woman. “This is the biggest tragedy on U.S. soil,” Kalishek said. On a construction lift, Kevin Hildebrandt, a risk-control manager for Town of Menasha-based Miron Construction, helped guide the tower into place on the Pentagon-shaped base.Monday morning’s work was more than a job for the Fremont man, who recently returned from a 13-month stint in Iraq. He said he was honored to be able to help with the installation. “I could not turn this opportunity down,” he said. As he helped guide the towers into place, he said “Let’s do it right, let’s get it done right for the people who paid the ultimate price.”

Karen Rauen writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

9/11 Exhibit Comes to Union Station

9/11 Exhibit Comes To Union Station
Historical Display In KC Until Mid-August
POSTED: 5:21 pm CDT May 17, 2005
UPDATED: 6:58 pm CDT May 17, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A new exhibit at Union Station is a powerful reminder of the day America was attacked.
Video

Video: 9/11 Exhibit Comes To Union Station

"September 11: Bearing Witness To History" opens to the public on Saturday and will be at Union Station until mid-August.

The exhibit includes photographs, audio tapes and has pieces of metal from Ground Zero.
A group of first responders from Kansas City visited the exhibit Tuesday, KMBC's Erin Little reported.
"It tears your heart out -- that's the only way I can describe it. Very emotional seeing images like this," said one visitor at the exhibit.

Visitors are encouraged to write down their stories from that day. The responses will be sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as part of a 9/11 archive.

"It will bring back a lot of that initial patriotism that we felt right away; the love and pride for your country that's kind of faded the last couple of years -- and it brings it right back to you," one visitor said.
Web Link:

9-11 Memorial Project

“Faces of the Brave”
“Non-Profit” Tribute Artwork Project

The "Faces of the Brave" (FOTB) “Non-Profit” Tribute Artwork Project has been created as a lasting Tribute to Honor the lives of the fallen New York Emergency Services Personnel and other Heroes lost on 9-11 by putting their faces before the public. No longer will the thought of these brave men and women become a fading memory or mere statistic, there are more than 500 individual portraits to remind us of the personal sacrifice made that tragic day.

After more than 3 ½ years of Research & Development on the Tribute, Las Vegas artist Randy Soard has located each of the Surviving Family representatives (Estate Administrators) of the fallen Heroes lost on 9/11 and has invited each of them to participate in the “Faces of the Brave” Tribute Artwork Project. The artwork contains the images of 346 Firefighters (includes 3 retired FDNY), 23 Policemen (NYPD), 37 Port Authority Officers (PAPD), 16 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs-Paramedics), 3 New York State Court Officers, 2 (1 Active & 1 Retired) FBI Agents, 1 Secret Service Agent, 42 Security Officers, 11 Civilian-Volunteer Firefighters, 7 Civilian-Volunteer Fire Marshals and 20 Civilian heroes lost on 9/11.
All of the surviving families have been requested to provide one or two images of their fallen “family member” to be used in the artwork (a different image from the image(s) attached to the “Photo-Release” if they so choose). The “Final Version” of the “Faces of the Brave” artwork will “ONLY” contain images that have been legally authorized by the Estate Administrators (via a “Photo Release”). Many of the images provided to the artist by the survivors are from private collections and have never been viewed by the public.

Once the participation of the surviving families has been legally authorized and licensed, the artwork will then be printed and made available to the general public for purchase. 100% of the profits from the sale of the “Faces of the Brave” artwork will be gifted directly to the surviving families of the fallen Heroes or to the Charity, Foundation or Scholarship Funds of their choice.
The primary goal of this Project is to display the “Faces of the Brave” Artwork in public setting across the country and around the world including all Fire-Rescue Stations, Police & Paramedic-EMT Operations and Training Facilities, Educational Institutions (Schools, Universities), Hospitals and Medical Centers, Museums, Military Bases, Theaters, Transportation Terminals (Airports, Ferry, Rail, Bus, Cruise), Financial Institutions (Banks, Credit Unions and Brokerages), Municipal-County-Federal Court Houses, Sport Stadiums (College & Professional), Departments of the U.S. Government and all U.S. Embassies located World Wide. The “Faces of the Brave” artwork will also become a part of traveling and permanent public exhibits at State Fairs, Indoor Malls, Public Libraries and Building Murals dedicated to honoring those lost on 9-11.

For Additional Information, please contact us at the following:

Randy Soard
Las Vegas, Nevada
Email: RandySoard@hotmail.com
Web: Http://www.BraveFaces.com