October 7, 2003
The Honorable Stephen G. Abraham
Chairman, Worcester City Council Youth, Parks and Recreation Committee
Worcester City Hall
Worcester, Mass.
Dear Councilor Abraham,
I am enclosing a summary of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee's proposal for disposition of the proposed site of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park.
In brief, the proposal calls for the City of Worcester to allow the memorial committee to use this almost seven-acre site on Grove Street next to Worcester Fire Department Headquarters and Salisbury Pond to locate and build a memorial to the six Worcester fire fighters who died fighting a devastating fire in 1999. As part of the proposal, the memorial site would revert to the City once the memorial is built.
The enclosed summary provides a history of the memorial committee's work to date and of the decision to select this site. It also details plans for the memorial and its future.
The memorial committee and I appreciate the courteous, gracious and positive reception you and your City Council colleagues accorded us and our plans when we met with your committee September 29.
We look forward to the planned public hearing on our plans and proposal.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or need additional information, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Donoghue,
Chairman, Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee
Proposal for site disposition for Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee is asking the City of Worcester to allow the committee to use an almost seven-acre site next to Worcester Fire Department Headquarters on Grove Street and next to Salisbury Pond for the location and development on the site of a memorial to the six brave Worcester fire fighters who lost their lives in a December 3, 1999 fire. The committee also proposes that the site revert to the City once the memorial is built.
To support its proposal, the committee is providing the following: A history leading to selection of this site for the fire fighters' memorial; plans for the memorial; the future of the memorial after it is built.
History
Six fearless Worcester fire fighters died the evening of December 3, 1999, during rescue operations in a tragic fire at Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. The deaths of the six fallen heroes drew national attention to Worcester, as our country mourned their loss with our community. In the aftermath of this tragedy, a memorial committee was established. The committee began planning in late 2001 for a memorial that would be a tribute equal in measure to the valor of Fire Fighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. "Jay" Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer.
The committee's purpose is to select the site of the memorial; to establish a process for community participation and awareness in the design and development of the memorial; and to raise money for the memorial's construction and maintenance.
In accomplishing its first purpose, the committee at its outset spent months selecting the memorial site. A professional comparative analysis was done of the two sites that ultimately came under the committee's consideration: The site of the fire on Franklin Street near Route 290, and the site next to Fire Department Headquarters on Grove Street and Salisbury Pond. The comparative analysis showed the Grove Street site to be far superior for the memorial than the Franklin Street site. The committee, after lengthy, emotional and sometimes difficult deliberations, came to agree with the analysis, and chose the Grove Street site for the memorial.
The choice was based primarily on four factors:
- The advantage of exceptional public access and sight lines to the memorial at the Grove Street site.
- The superior aesthetics of the Grove Street site, on a blend of open and wooded acreage next to the scenic vista of Salisbury Pond in Institute Park.
- The unencumbered availability of the Grove Street site, on city-owned land.
- The proximity of the site to fire headquarters, where all six fallen heroes had trained to be fire fighters and from which four of the valiant men had left the evening of December 3, 1999, never to return.
The emotional pull of the Franklin Street site remains strong, especially for the families of the six fallen heroes, and it will forever remain hallowed ground. So too will the lasting tribute to those valiant men at Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park, once it is established next to fire headquarters.
City Manager Thomas Hoover recommended to the City Council in August that it approve the memorial committee's proposal to use the almost seven acres of Grove Street land for the memorial site. Once the memorial is built, the proposal calls for the land to revert to the City.
The City Council Youth, Parks and Recreation Committee has scheduled a hearing on the memorial committee's proposal to give the public an opportunity to learn about the proposal and to comment on it.
Plans
Since announcing in October 2002 its selection of the memorial site off Grove Street, the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee has formally named the site as "Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park 5-1438, December 3, 1999." The numbers stand for the five alarms and the Fire Department code for the location of the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire.
Also since selection of the Grove Street site the committee has voted to adopt a two-stage open national competition to determine the final design for the memorial. Proposals will be sought soon from architects, landscape architects, urban designers and environmental artists from throughout the United States. A jury of nationally known designers and local community representatives will choose the winning design from among finalists chosen after the first stage of the competition. The public will have an opportunity to review and comment on the finalists' choices before the second stage of the competition gets under way to award the design contract.
The committee already has set as guidelines for the design that the memorial include a monument to the six firefighters; a bridge connecting the memorial site to Institute Park across Salisbury Pond; a chronology of the tragic fire and its aftermath; and tributes to others who fought the fire and to other Worcester firefighters who die in the line of duty.
Obtaining rights to the Grove Street site will give the memorial committee the jurisdiction it needs to begin taking the important next steps in creating the memorial park.
The steps include:
- Seeking proposals for the first stage of a two-stage design competition that will determine what the memorial will look like and how it will fit into the site.
- Mounting a fund-raising campaign to finance the memorial and to create an endowment that will pay for its maintenance and possibly for educational adjuncts to the memorial after it is built.
- Ensuring that the public is kept informed about progress toward building the memorial, and that public opinion is solicited during the design competition.
The committee also has adopted a mission statement toward its goal of creating the memorial, with the theme "A Time to Honor Our Own." The committee will soon announce its formal campaign to raise money for the memorial and its maintenance. The campaign will seek to raise money from the public, from private donors, from corporate sponsors and from foundations.
The committee has a Web site under development to inform the public about the memorial, and progress toward its establishment. The committee will also inform the public about the memorial's progress via regular updates through the news media.
Future
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park is envisioned as a perpetual commemoration of the honor, courage and sacrifice displayed by Fire Fighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. "Jay" Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer during their heroic efforts the evening of December 3, 1999.
One of the reasons the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee chose the tranquil site on Salisbury Pond across from Institute Park for the memorial was to enable visitors in the future to reflect on the honor, courage and sacrifice of our fallen heroes, and in so doing, to keep their heroism alive forever.
It is the memorial committee's goal to perpetuate the site through an endowment fund for its continual maintenance. The committee's fund-raising campaign's target is to secure enough support to build the memorial and to maintain it in perpetuity.
The committee also hopes that in the future the memorial park will serve as a catalyst, with the adjacent Fire Department Headquarters, for providing educational opportunities about the noble profession to which our six fallen heroes dedicated and sacrificed their lives.
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Last modified: Aug 12, 2004, 14:10 EDT