WPCNR COUNTY CLARION LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. September 9, 2004: In remembrance of those who died Sept. 11, 2001, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano will preside over a ceremony to break ground for a memorial to the 109 Westchester victims of 9-11 on Friday, Sept. 10 at 12 noon at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.

At the ceremony, Spano will also announce a $2,500 donation by the Rotary Club of White Plains, the first gift to a special fund set up by the Friends of Westchester County Parks Inc. to maintain the memorial.

         The memorial will include the names of the 109 Westchester residents who died, the communities in which they lived and a quote from their loved ones. The words will be engraved along the outside of the memorial’s circular base. The rods will extend from the base like the spokes of a wheel before reaching up and intertwining. Perennial plantings will surround the base, with the Kensico Dam as the backdrop.

Family members unanimously selected “The Rising” from among 37 proposals received by the county.

The memorial, which will be unveiled on Sept. 11, 2005, was first announced in April during the State of the County address.

Frederic Schwartz, an internationally-known Manhattan architect who designed the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal located at the tip of Manhattan and founded the THINK team, a group of architects whose design was selected as a finalist for the redesign of the World Trade Center and will also be designing New Jersey’s 9-11 memorial.

In addition to Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Westchester will remember those lost in the terrorist attacks by asking houses of worship in Westchester to ring their bells on Sat., Sept. 11 at 8:46 a.m. and again at 9:03 a.m., the times when the hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. 

Spano first announced his idea for a 9-11 memorial in his April 2002 State of the County address. The county set aside $150,000 for the memorial and another $50,000 is from a state grant obtained by former Assemblywoman Naomi Matusow.

Requests for proposals went out to artists Sept. 2003 and by the Jan. 15 deadline the county had received 37 proposals from across the country and one from an artist in Valencia, Spain.

Committee members involved in the selection process included family members Rosaleen and Mary O’Neill, Juliette Brisman, Helen Friedlander and Linda Pohlman. Consulting on the selection were Mona Chen, of the MTA Art for Transit Program; Lucinda Gedeon, former director of the Neuberger Museum; Janet Langsam, Director of the Westchester Arts Council, Randy Williams, Manhattanville College Art Department Chairman and John Sullivan, Architect.

Spano will be joined by the family members of 9-11 victims as well as Rep. Nita Lowey; Board of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan, members of the Board of Legislators and Architect Frederic Schwartz, who designed The Rising, an 80-foot sculpture of 109 intertwining stainless steel strands that will serve as a memorial to the county’s 9-11 victims. Honor guards from the Valhalla and North White Plains Fire Departments and Westchester County will open the ceremony.