Texas 9/11 Memorial Renovations Progressing

Oct. 24--Plans to rebuild San Angelo's Sept. 11 memorial, which was vandalized and stripped of the piece of steel from the World Trade Center earlier this year, are moving forward.

The monument, located near Celebration Bridge on the Concho River, and below the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, is unusual because it was the first Sept. 11 monument built in Texas incorporating a piece of steel from ground zero in New York City, according to Bishop Emeritus Michael Pfeifer, who was key in establishing the memorial. The steel fragment was received by Pfiefer from the archbishop of New York City.

"It's unbelievable somebody would do something like this to something so sacred for all of us," he said.

After the initial shock, Pfeifer and other community leaders vowed to rebuild the monument. An ad hoc committee was formed including Pfeifer; current Bishop Michael Sis; Mayor Dwain Morrison; City Manager Daniel Valenzuela and architect Craig Kinney, original designer of the monument.

"This is a very important project to us," said Valenzuela. "The memorial is a tribute to all the first responders, and a reminder to all of us."

He said San Angeloan Rosendo "Rosey" Velez, who was a first responder as captain of the New York Critical Response Medical Services 2001, happened to have some pieces of World Trade Center steel, and graciously agreed to donate a piece as a replacement for the heart of the memorial.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Velez said the New York Post Authority gave crosses cut out of World Trade Center steel to many first responders or their families. Because he had two daughters, Velez had requested two crosses.

Velez said he has seen the plans for the new memorial, and likes the layout, adding that improved security at the site was a "mandatory" condition for the cross's donation.

"Both these crosses belong to my family," Velez said. "Now my family is willing to give one to the city, and the kids of San Angelo ... It (the theft) upset a lot of people ... We don't want to see this one lost or destroyed as well."

He has cause for concern. When Velez first visited West Texas, he presented three crosses -- one to the city, one to Goodfellow Air Force Base, and one to the city of Sonora. While Goodfellow still has its cross, Sonora's cross was stolen and the city's one can't be located, he said.

City Manager Valenzuela said "lighting and security will very much be improved" at the new memorial. The design will be pretty much similar to the original, with some modification for the new shape -- the stolen steel was square shaped, but this one is a cross; however both are of similar size.

"This is most unusual in that the new steel is almost identical in size to the old steel," said architect Craig Kinney, who is getting to work on the monument a second time. He and others in the community miss the absent centerpiece. "It's now a wasteland. I'm excited to make the place and the memorial live again. I think the community will be pleased with the reinvention of memorial."

No time line has been set for the project yet. Valenzuela said the ad hoc committee is working to raise $16,000 to repair the monument, and get adequate security and lighting in place.

Pfeifer, the former bishop of San Angelo, is confident in the result. "This monument connects us to a place of deep tragedy, but also a place of deep heroism, it connects us to the wider world," he said. "I hope this monument will always be a symbol calling us to be the true kind of people our God wants us to be -- people working for peace and building a strong community of peace.

"And that people will never give up their hope. Hope is a great gift to spur us into the future," Pfifer said. "If you keep that, keep working and praying, and respecting one another, God will work it out."

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