Holmdel set to bond
$150,000 for memorial
BY VINCE ECHAVARIA
Staff Writer

HOLMDEL — The Township Committee plans to spend $150,000 to help fund a municipal 9/11 memorial to be built in front of town hall.

The committee introduced a $150,000 bond ordinance at its Feb. 9 meeting to cover some of the construction costs for the memorial.

The memorial is expected to cost between $200,000 and $250,000 to build, said Township Administrator Christopher Schultz. He said the committee should issue the bonds before the 2004 township budget is finished in order to move the project along. A public hearing on the bond ordinance is scheduled for Feb. 23.

The memorial will be erected to honor township residents who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. A 9/11 memorial committee, created for the project, has met with a designer to finalize the memorial’s design, said Joseph Annecharico, township chief financial officer.

The $150,000 in bonds and money raised by the committee will be used to construct the monument, Annecharico said. The committee raised $85,000 through an art show in October.

"The committee has also raised money by soliciting donations from the residents," Annecharico said.

The memorial project will be broken up into phases, he said. The $150,000, plus some of the $85,000, will cover the first phase costs expected to total $185,000, and will include construction of the monument in a decorative stone and engraving of the victims’ names.

The design of the memorial includes a pair of bronze open hands reaching toward the sky, with two beams of light coming out of the hands. The project should begin within the next few months, he said, and the goal of the memorial committee is to have it completed by Sept. 11 this year.