GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – After a unanimous vote to tear it down a couple of weeks ago, Green Bay is now going to try to preserve its 9/11 memorial.
With only an eight-year estimate for how much it might cost to fix the falling apart and factually incorrect monument, Green Bay’s parks committee unanimously agreed the city should fundraise enough money to fix it.
Bernie Erickson, a Brown County supervisor who spoke at the committee meeting during public comment, tells FOX 11…
“The general feeling is unanimous that something has to be done.”
Green Bay city staff spent the past week going over records from when the monument was donated in 2005 at a value of $250,000.
The records showed the group that donated the memorial, offered to fundraise money to fix it in 2009. The estimated cost at that time to replace the base’s granite panels was $36,000 to $38,000.
“I think it needs to come back,” said Barb Jack, one of the memorial’s original fundraisers. “I don’t think it’s going to be that hard to raise the money.”
At last week’s city council meeting, Jack urged the council to keep the monument because of what is inside its base.
“I mean you guys have to realize there is a remnant of a victim in there,” Jack told the council.
A week after making that comment, Jack tells FOX 11 she has the proof to back up her claim.
“I have stuff in here, but I’m not sharing it with the press. That is private information with the families.”
Alderman Guy Zima says a picture proves something was put in the memorial’s base.
In the picture, Jack is holding a canister, to her left is the brother of a 9/11 victim, and to the right is an employee of Miron Construction, the company that erected the monument.
“Whether somebody put something in there or not is kind of really secondary,” said Zima. “It’s not a condition of having the monument.”
Either way, the work now begins to come up with a plan to raise the money to keep the monument in place.
The full city council is expected to vote on the parks committee recommendation at its next meeting.
On 9/11 this year, a beam from the World Trade Center was removed the memorial. For now, it’s on display in the police department’s lobby.
