Tiles on the wall have not held up and the wall, if restored, might not last. Watch link to discussion Board had with Commissioner of Parks.
Greenburgh Town Board discusses possibility of removing 9-11 memorial wall on Central Ave and replacing it with a memorial that will last (link to discussion below).
In 2003 the town dedicated a 9-11memorial wall to honor the memories of the victims of 9-11. The Wall has been located at Richard Presser Park on Central Ave in Hartsdale. Over 1800 tiles were placed on one side of the wall, painted by residents of the county. A piece of metal from the World Trade Center is attached to the wall. The other side—featured illustrations painted by an artist commissioned by Rotary. Rotary contributed to the cost of the wall.
Sadly, the wall has never held up. We had to repair the wall twice –tiles cracked from the mural. Hundreds of tiles have fallen-many unusable.
(see NY Times article from 2011:
There were construction deficiencies making it very difficult to reattach the tiles (we tried to reattach the tiles twice). Issues of damp, drainage were involved. The painting on the Rotary side is also not holding up since the paint the artist used was not weather resistant.
This is a link from a post Sarah Bracey White wrote highlighting a previous restoration effort:
https://www.linkedin.com/
Earlier this year, after more tiles started falling down and cracking – we removed all the tiles from the wall. We recently retained a consultant AM Art Conservation. One suggestion: that we remove the wall and create another memorial. If we choose to repair the existing wall the cost will be high (could be in the range of $100,000) and there is no guarantee that the wall will last.
The Town Board had a meeting this past week. The link to the discussion can be found here:
9/11 Memorial Wall:
Since the meeting I have contacted officials from the district Rotary Club, fire fighters notifying them of the meeting the Town Board had. A committee including the Rotary Club, firefighters will be asked to come up with a plan to honor the memories of the victims of 9-11 and to pay tribute to the first responders.
There is another memorial for the victims of 9-11 at AF Veteran park. If we take down the wall there are a number of options: we can consider placing the World Trade Center artifact at the memorial at AF Veteran park. We can try to incorporate some of the tiles in the memorial. Other options: creating a 9-11 memorial at the library, near the Hartsdale train station or outside Town Hall.
We should also honor the firefighters and first responders who died in recent years from long term health effects due to their responses. Thousands of first responders have died from respiratory diseases and cancer since 9-11 from the toxic clouds of dangerous particles inhaled. We could add their names to the list of local residents who passed away due to 9-11.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
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