The Princeton Council was asked Monday to front the money for a Sept.11 memorial that would include a piece of World Trade Center steel that has a cutout in the shape of a cross.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Council was asked Monday to front the money for a Sept.11 memorial that would include a piece of World Trade Center steel that has a cutout in the shape of a cross.
Princeton Deputy Fire Chief Roy James, the driving force behind creating the memorial, went before the governing body at its meeting with plans to locate it on the lawn south of old Borough Hall, near the Princeton Battle Monument.
Pamela Lucas Rew, an architect with KSS Architects who is involved in the project, said the Sept.11 memorial aims to fit into the area seamlessly.
The project was initially turned down by state authorities, as the site is technically part of Princeton Battlefield State Park. They had felt the Sept.11 memorial was within the grounds of the Washington memorial and did not “relate to the mission and interpretive themes” of the park.
Gov. Chris Christie’s office, however, reversed that decision.
Mr. James said in a phone interview Thursday that it was within the past two and a half months that Mr. Christie’s office gave the approval.
During his presentation Monday, he asked the council to pay for the costs of the memorial, estimated to be between $75,000 to $100,000, up front. He said he would seek to raise the money to repay the town but was not comfortable going to donors up to now without having ironclad approval to move ahead.
”I was a little taken aback by that,” Councilwoman Jo S. Butler said Tuesday of the request for the town to front the money.
Officials also are looking into the legal issues of having a cross on a memorial in “public space.”
”I wouldn’t want controversy to distract from a very important memorial,” Councilwoman Heather H. Howard said in a phone interview Thursday. “Also, we need to do our due diligence about whether we’re inviting a legal battle.”
As it is proposed, the memorial site would include a blue stone path that would include text that tells the story of what had happened on that day in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon and poetry of Emily Dickinson, Stephen Crane and Jones Very that was written before and after the Civil War.
The path leads visitors to the memorial, consisting of the World Trade steel enclosed by linear pieces of limestone, according to Ms. Rew. Organizers said the design of the memorial is “laid out to depict the interruption to daily life after the attacks.”
Ms. Rew said the memorial will not, however, include the names of the nine people from Princeton killed that day, as the project is “a more general remembrance.” For his part, Mr. James said he would like to see the names included, an issue that is up for discussion.
The 9-foot steel piece from the World Trade Center has been stored at the firehouse on Harrison Street since it was brought from New York to Princeton in March 2012. Mr. James had sought to have the memorial up by now, although organizers hope to break ground in September and have it dedicated by Sept. 11, 2014, the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attack.
Mr. James said steelworkers, during recovery efforts at Ground Zero, would cut out crosses, stars of David and other symbols from the steel beams and give them to the families and friends of the victims. They also were distributed to churches, synagogues and other places where people were not able to get steel beams, he said.
Another potential hurdle awaits, as the project needs to go before the Princeton Historic Preservation Commission. There is no schedule for when that might occur.
Mr. James has said the bureaucratic delays in getting the project approved have been “frustrating.” He said one prospective financial donor, interested in supporting the project but on a timeline to give the money, had to back out and donate to something else. He said others, interested in doing landscaping and cement work, also had to back out due to the time delays.
He said Princeton University has been open about helping in any ways it can.

