By Angela Christoforos WAGM-TV
A special piece of steel from the Twin Towers has made it’s [sic] way to Ashland for a first of it’s [sic] kind 9/11 Memorial in Aroostook County. The steel chunk stands 4 feet tall and 4 feet long, with a width of about 1 foot. It’s a structure that once helped hold up one of the Twin Towers.
Fire Chief of the Ashland Fire Department Don Bouley said, “It’s a brotherhood the fire department, we’re brotherhoods here and it’s just very emotional, very emotional time, and I haven’t forgot about it.”
Since the 2001 September 11th attacks, wreckage from the World Trade Center has been donated for local memorials across the country, and now Ashland will be the new home to a piece of history. Getting it though, wasn’t the easiest process.
Fire Chief of the Ashland Fire Department Don Bouley said, “I started checking into it on the computer I got into where I had to be to go get it and they said they were all out to give the steel out there was no more to be given out.”
Though the program had no more pieces to offer; luckily some were leftover from a 9/11 Steel Memorial of the Twin Towers in Freeport. The donated piece of steel weighs 3,680 pounds. The Ashland Fire Department and Masonic Lodge is hoping to have a Memorial designed using the piece of steel by September of next year.
Fire Chief of the Ashland Fire Department Don Bouley said, “We went over, put our hand on it and the hair on the back of my neck and my wife’s just stood up, just by saying we touched part of history and what those people went through.”
The Ashland Fire Chief says plans are underway to set up a Committee this winter; to determine how the steel memorial will be constructed and where it will be located. He hopes to have the Memorial available for public viewing in time for the 13th year anniversary.
The steel memorial will be on display at the Ashland Fire Department for the next couple weeks and donations are being accepted at the Ashland Town Office for anyone that would like to assist in the construction of this Memorial. There are also 9/11 Memorials in both Ellsworth and Freeport. [grammar and punctuation errors original]
