WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. Coverage From Westchester County Department of Communications. September 11, 2003: County Executive Andy Spano today announced that Westchester County is seeking proposals from artists to design a memorial to the 111 Westchester County residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

Spano made the announcement at a memorial event at Webb Field in Greenburgh to commemorate the second anniversary of 9/11 and break ground on another memorial – a wall of more than 2,000 tiles designed by Westchester residents.

During his speech to those gathered at Webb Field, the County Executive said that a committee made up of emergency personnel, family members of 9-11 victims, planners and parks officials have been working to find a location for the memorial and to come up with criteria for a design. The memorial will be located at the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.

More than 1,000 post cards announcing the county’s search for a design are being sent to artists and local arts councils nationwide. Information about the project as well as copies of the RFP can be downloaded from the county’s website at www.Westchestergov.com

 Artists must submit proposals to the committee by Jan. 15, 2004. The 27-member memorial committee will then select finalists who will be asked to make a formal presentation before the committee. The county hopes to announce a winner by April with construction to begin by July.

The memorial would be dedicated on Sept. 11, 2005.  The total cost of the monument would be $200,000 with $150,000 coming from county funds and $50,000 from state funds.

While the RFP states that the committee expects that the memorial will be some type of sculpture, it is open to other ideas, as long as the proposal meets other criteria. The memorial should fit in with the landscape at Kensico and take into account that residents will be using the area for recreation as well.

Juliette Brisman, whose husband Mark died while working at the World Trade Center, said the committee had agreed that the Kensico Dam Plaza was the most fitting location for the memorial because of its central location in Westchester and the fact that it was visited by thousands of people each year. In 2002, more than 40,000 people visited the park.

Brisman said that the committee’s key concern was that the memorial reflect the individuals who died. One idea discussed was to have a friend or family member write a short line about each victim that could be inscribed on the monument.

“A name on the monument was not enough,’’ she said. “We wanted people to know who our loved ones really were,’’ she said.

She added, “We also wanted the memorial to be low enough to the ground for children and so people could touch or walk through it.”

Spano said it would be up to the artist to propose a monument that both reflected the loss to the nation as well as the individual.

“This was a large loss for us all,’’ said Spano. “But I think the family members would like the memorial to serve as a reminder of the individual and what their deaths meant to their families and communities as well as to the nation.’’