Nancy Fischer News Niagara
NORTH TONAWANDA – The harsh winter weather, not vandalism, was blamed for damage that brought down a tower in the city’s 9/11 Memorial.
The monument in Brauer Park, next to City Hall, was dedicated September 11, 2014, and includes a piece of steel salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center that late Alderman-at-Large Robert Clark gave to the city.
City Engineer Dale W. Marshall said Tuesday that the city had planned to replace the two frosted-glass towers prior to the damage, which he said was discovered on March 31.
“I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke,” said Marshall when he heard that one of the towers was down. “(The tower) is tempered glass and it weighed about 500 or 600 pounds. The scary part is that the way that it was destroyed is that it fell down on itself, just like the real tower.”
He said that the tower did not fall on the granite pentagram, which he said would have been “horrific.”
“The etching was (erroneously) on the outside, instead of the inside (of the towers) and we were going to replace them anyway, in the spring,” said Marshall. “I think we are going to make an improvement to the design, too, when we redo them.”
Marshall said the worst winter on record did not help the memorial, but said the glue and the manufacturing process needed to be improved, as well.
He said the dedication last year was something the city hopes to repeat annually and said they are already in the process of rebuilding the monument.
