By Mark Scheer
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
Mayor Paul Dyster and city lawmakers have cleared the way for a local non-profit group to use casino cash funds needed for the construction of a monument honoring military veterans from Niagara Falls.
During a brief special session Wednesday morning, council members authorized a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Niagara Falls Veterans Commission, a group that will be working in the months ahead to build a large granite veterans memorial on 6 acres of land at the corner of Hyde Park near Pine Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard.
Dyster signed the agreement immediately after it was approved. As a result, the commission will now have the power to begin using $500,000 in casino cash lawmakers agreed to dedicate to the project months ago.
“It’s going to be a great project for the city,” said City Council Chairman Sam Fruscione. “It’s going to draw a lot of people to Hyde Park and help the businesses in the area.”
The proposed monument will be modeled after the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and will list the names of all 960 Niagara Falls residents who have died in battle since the Civil War. Plans call for the main monument to be connected to replicas of the Iwo Jima monument in Arlington, Va. and the Vietnam war monument, known as the Three Soldiers statue, in Washington, D.C.
The agreement with the city pegs the total cost for the project at $3.4 million. It is proposed to be constructed in three phases, with the initial phase having a cost of about $1.7 million. The city’s $500,000 is to be used for engineering and architectural fees for the first phase of construction which will focus on the main portion of the monument. All invoices to be reimbursed from the city grant are to be submitted by the commission’s chairman to the city controller for review before payment.
Under the terms of the agreement, the commission is solely responsible for raising the remaining $1.2 million needed to complete the first phase. In addition to the city’s contribution, commission members are expecting to raise construction funds through private donations and other public funding sources.
Commission members and city leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony at Hyde Park on Memorial Day. The commission has hired a contractor to begin soil surface and boring testing at the site and the goal is to have the entire project finished by this time next year.
