GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, the City of Green Bay still has yet to replace a memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives on that day.
What remains of the memorial: a girder from one of the World Trade Center towers, remains in the lobby of the Green Bay Police Station.
Officials with Green Bay’s Police and Fire Departments agree that they would like to see the memorial in a more public location.
“We have to stand together and remember all those people who lost their lives,” said Police Commander Kevin Warych. “If we can bring that girder to a location where it can be seen by more people, 365 days a year, I think that would be better for everybody.”
That’s been the plan since the previous memorial was decommissioned in 2019. The old memorial, which was located in front of the Neville Museum, was poorly constructed, with the granite used in the monument cracking and the indoor marble that served as a base wearing down over the years. It was also factually inaccurate: it listed the wrong flight numbers for the planes involved in the 2001 terror attacks that killed 2,996 people including the 19 hijackers. The monument was first installed by a Fox Valley group back in 2005, and Green Bay was chosen as the location after the City of Madison refused it.
It was supposed to be the first of many–the group had originally planned to place a similar monument in the capitols of all 50 states. That never happened, and the former monument was the only one of its kind ever built.
Alderman Randy Scannell says that, although the girder isn’t in a very publicly accessible place right now, it’s still in a better spot than it was.
“The previous monument was just…well, I felt ashamed,” Scannell said Tuesday. “It had misinformation. It was in terrible condition. You’re not honoring those people, at the end the day, with a shoddy monument.”
The girder’s placement in the lobby of the Green Bay Police Department was only supposed to be a temporary measure. There are plans in place to design a more permanent memorial at the city’s planned Joint Public Safety building. The problem is: those plans have been put on hold.
“The idea had always been to do something within that building, with the girder, and a digital display, and a statue or something,” said Scannell. “Since our capital campaign is on hold, I’m not sure when we’re picking that back up again.”
However it’s done, Green Bay Metro Fire Chief Dave Litton wants the monument to convey respect.
“We really want to make sure people remember that we honor the firefighters, police officers, military and civilians that lost their lives that day,” said Litton. “Just make sure we’re respectful of that.”
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the City of Green Bay to suspend their capital campaign.
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