Post by district5 on Nov 13, 2008 19:23:30 GMT -5
November 13, 2008 Cincinnati.com (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Firefighter memorial may expand
By Jane Prendergast
jprendergast@enquirer.com
Cincinnati firefighters have debated city, state and federal officials for years trying to get permission to expand their downtown fire memorial.
They might finally have the answer they’ve wanted.
A proposed lease between the city and the non-profit Cincinnati Firefighters Memorial Park LLC would let the firefighters stretch the city-owned Central Avenue site the entire block between Fifth and Sixth streets. That would allow the current centerpiece of the memorial, a statue of a firefighter, to be moved back so that guests who stand around it for the annual memorial service honoring dead firefighters no longer have to stand in the street.
The lease, which starts at five years but could be extended to 20, calls for the non-profit group to pay the city $1 a year. City officials got permission from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration to lease the property. The lease, if approved by the city planning commission and council, could still be ended if the state or federal governments decide the property is needed for the upcoming projects to replace the Brent Spence Bridge or for the widening of Interstate 75.
Marc Monahan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 48, doesn’t think the property will be needed for either of the highway projects. Union officials have worried about losing the property before – in 2002, when the Ohio Department of Transportation gave it to the city in case the city needed it for the expansion of the then-Albert B. Sabin Convention Center. Firefighters then asked for the memorial to be moved to the decks proposed to go over Fort Washington Way. But those were never built.
Now, Monahan’s hoping that despite the years of limbo, some of the firefighters and retirees who worked hard on the previous plans will get re-energized – if the lease is approved. Fundraising is difficult, he said, without control of the property.
Prior plans for the memorial called for moving the statute, making the site more of a park-like setting and adding history about the Cincinnati Fire Department, founded in 1853 as the first paid fire department in the United States. Then, organizers hoped to raise more than $1 million for the project.
“We had big plans,” Monahan said. “At this point, we’re not really sure what’s going to happen. It’s definitely going to be a long-term project.
Firefighter memorial may expand
By Jane Prendergast
jprendergast@enquirer.com
Cincinnati firefighters have debated city, state and federal officials for years trying to get permission to expand their downtown fire memorial.
They might finally have the answer they’ve wanted.
A proposed lease between the city and the non-profit Cincinnati Firefighters Memorial Park LLC would let the firefighters stretch the city-owned Central Avenue site the entire block between Fifth and Sixth streets. That would allow the current centerpiece of the memorial, a statue of a firefighter, to be moved back so that guests who stand around it for the annual memorial service honoring dead firefighters no longer have to stand in the street.
The lease, which starts at five years but could be extended to 20, calls for the non-profit group to pay the city $1 a year. City officials got permission from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration to lease the property. The lease, if approved by the city planning commission and council, could still be ended if the state or federal governments decide the property is needed for the upcoming projects to replace the Brent Spence Bridge or for the widening of Interstate 75.
Marc Monahan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 48, doesn’t think the property will be needed for either of the highway projects. Union officials have worried about losing the property before – in 2002, when the Ohio Department of Transportation gave it to the city in case the city needed it for the expansion of the then-Albert B. Sabin Convention Center. Firefighters then asked for the memorial to be moved to the decks proposed to go over Fort Washington Way. But those were never built.
Now, Monahan’s hoping that despite the years of limbo, some of the firefighters and retirees who worked hard on the previous plans will get re-energized – if the lease is approved. Fundraising is difficult, he said, without control of the property.
Prior plans for the memorial called for moving the statute, making the site more of a park-like setting and adding history about the Cincinnati Fire Department, founded in 1853 as the first paid fire department in the United States. Then, organizers hoped to raise more than $1 million for the project.
“We had big plans,” Monahan said. “At this point, we’re not really sure what’s going to happen. It’s definitely going to be a long-term project.