Work Begins on 9/11 Memorial

Crews for the Arnold Parks and Recreation Department broke ground earlier this week and began building the 9/11 memorial at the Arnold Recreation Center at 1695 Missouri State Dr.

As of Thursday morning, four men seemed to be placing guides for what appeared to be a 30-foot cement sidewalk connecting the recreation center to a 40-foot wide circle expected to contain a portion of the World Trade Center buildings that were destroyed after terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.   

The memorial will be unveiled at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 11, said Parks Director Susie Boone during the Arnold Tourism Committee Meeting on at City Hall, 2101 Jeffco Blvd., on Wednesday afternoon.

During the meeting, Ward 3 Councilman Phil Amato asked Boone to discuss the reasoning for the memorial’s location at the recreation center. 

The port authority is responsible for guarding the buildings’ remains and issuing memorial items, Boone said.

The City of Arnold was one of 12,000 applications to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that requested a portion of the buildings, Parks Director Susie Boone said.

A port authority guideline is that the memorial be easily seen and touched by a variety of people, Boone said.

The Arnold Recreation Center is next to Jefferson College and the Arnold Branch of the Jefferson County Public Library, she said.

“That area (the recreation center) is very visible to college students, babies and seniors,” Boone said.

Many seniors walk at the Arnold Recreation Center.

The port authority approved the site location and granted Arnold’s request, Boone said. 

“We are under contract with the port authority for that site,” Boone said. If Arnold broke the contract, the port authority could sue the city.

Arnold has no intention of breaking the contract, Boone said.

Ward 1 Councilman Christine "Cricky" Lang said the memorial commission, which is coordinating volunteers to build the memorial, needed to educate younger children about 9/11.

Lang said a 13-year-old girl, who was too young to remember 9/11, asked her to explain the significance of the events. 

More than 2,800 people died in the two New York City office buildings that crumbled hours after terrorists deliberately flew two 767 passenger jets the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. 

“They, the teenagers, are asking very serious questions, but it’s difficult to explain it to them,” Lang said. 

Lang said the Rock Community Fire Protection District is collecting news articles and videos to display at the nearby library for kids’ education.

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Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said terrorists flew two 747 passenger planes into the World Trade Center buildings. The writer and editors erred.