Community Corner
Commission Approves 9/11 Memorial Bench
The City Council will now have the final say on the display proposed for the town greenbelt.
The Public Works Commission voted unanimously Wednesday night in favor of sending plans for the 9/11 Victims Memorial Bench to the City Council for approval.
The Hermosa Beach Police Department's chaplain program is organizing the project.
The plans for the bench were presented by Gila Katz, senior chaplain and a project volunteer. The bench would be located on the town greenbelt between Pier Avenue and Valley Drive.
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Plans call for the ground beneath the 9/11 Victims Memorial Bench to be embedded with about 10,000 buttons in the shape of the number 2,998. The figure represents the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks.
In front of the bench would be a pedestal with a beam featuring a plaque that said "May our voices unite in a song of freedom … dedicated to the memory of the 2,998 victims of 9/11," Katz said.
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Michael Goergen, vice president of the Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club, told the commission about middle school students in the Kiwanis Builders Club who are collecting buttons for the display and sending letters to officials requesting their thoughts about 9/11.
"This does mean a lot to these kids," Goergen said.
If approved by the City Council, the bench would be installed this summer in time for the anniversary of 9/11. Commissioner Daniel Marinelli said he could organize a candlelight walk up to the bench on Memorial Day every year.
