GREEN BAY (WTAQ-WLUK) – It’s been 14 months since Green Bay’s city council voted to let a fundraising effort begin to pay for repairs of the downtown 9/11 memorial. However, no money has been raised yet.
“It’s embarrassing the condition it’s in,” said Alderman Randy Scannell. “That’s what prompted what we can do about it in the first place.”
The memorial was donated to the city in 2005, along with a steal beam from the Twin Towers. On September 11th, 2017, a decommissioning ceremony was held and the beam was taken to the police department lobby. Before the entire memorial came down, one of its original fundraisers, Barb Jack, convinced the city council to try to fix it.
“I mean you guys have to realize, there is a remnant of a victim in there,” said Jack.
Documentation backing up that claim has never been publicly produced, but a fundraising effort was still started to fix the memorial’s granite base.
Alderman John Vanderleest was leading the fundraising effort, but recently stepped down from that role.
“There has been no funds raised to date, so right now the fundraising effort is temporarily being put on hold until a committee can be formed who wants to tackle that effort again,” said Dan Ditscheit, the city’s parks director.
The cost of fixing the memorial is projected to be $100,000. The estimate for taking down the memorial is $30,000.
“We need to do something,” said Scannell. “If we don’t have the money to fix it up, I think the only thing left is to deaccession.”
The decision will be up to the city council. A vote has not been scheduled, but a discussion is expected to happen at a committee level in the next couple weeks.
City officials say the wrong type of granite was put on the memorial, which is likely the reason it fell into disrepair about 10 years after it was installed.
