07-29-2010

Marshall Could Have 9-11 Memorial In Park

The city of Marshall could have the first 9-11 Memorial in the State of Minnesota if construction on the memorial begins in Marshall's Memorial Park. Tuesday night, the Marshall City Council voted to award the full engineering project to Ernst and Associates for the Memorial Park, for about 32-thousand dollars. About a third of that will come from the city's budget according to city administrator Ben Martig. "The total contract amount is 32,550-dollars for this," said Martig. "It's substantial, but the city is only paying a third of that, and the other portion is coming from donations out in the community." They would hope to have the monument completed before the 10th Anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Martig says the model would include a beam from the actual World Trade Center. "The fire department obtained a beam from one of the Twin Towers," said Martig. "At one point they were allowing people to take those, but then cut it off because of environmental concerns." Ernst and Associates has worked with the city of Marshall on park projects before, including the city's most recent Liberty Park project.