Small city demands removal of angel silhouette from Sept. 11 memorial after complaint
For the last 10 years, Jack Chandler, 80, has been working to bring a 9/11 memorial to Milton Community Park.
Chandler, a veteran of the Army and the Air Force, spearheaded the formation of Milton’s 9/11 Memorial Committee under the umbrella of the Milton Police Department Foundation in order to gain non-profit status. He says bringing the memorial to life has been “one headache after another.”
First, there was a disagreement over where the memorial should be located, then, the artifact — a 36-foot piece of the World Trade Center — the board received from the Port Authority of New York was more than twice the size it had planned for.
Less than four months from the planned ribbon-cutting ceremony, Chandler is dealing with another problem.
On May 25, the associate city attorney for Milton sent Chandler a letter saying the city was requesting a piece of the memorial be removed. The piece in question is a 3-foot silhouette of an angel made from aircraft-grade aluminum, held down with rebar footing and encased in concrete.
“Recently, the City received a complaint that the angel silhouette statue that was installed as part of the memorial is a religious symbol and an inappropriate government endorsement of religious beliefs,” city attorney Andrew Tsoming said in the letter. “Therefore I must ask you to please remove the unpermitted angel silhouette statue from the memorial in Milton Community Park by July 1, 2021.”
During a March 15 meeting of the Milton City Council, Milton-resident Heather Popp submitted written remarks on her concerns over the angel statue’s inclusion in the 9/11 memorial.
Popp lives across the street from the memorial and said adding the angel is an inappropriate government endorsement of religious beliefs.
In an email to The News Tribune, Popp, who has filed to run for Milton City Council, said she always had concerns with the composition and location of the memorial.
“I did not think that including such a large artifact was the best way to memorialize the lives lost. It felt like something that glorified the violence that occurred on September 11,” Popp said. “My feelings have only changed in that I recognize that the memorial has been placed and will be a permanent part of the park.”
The City of Milton is asking that Chandler and the 9/11 Memorial Committee have the angel statue removed by July 1, or the city will remove it and dispose of it. Chandler said removing the statue so quickly will be impossible.
“I guess the attorney thinks that these contractors are sitting around waiting for somebody to call them,” Chandler said. He added that other aspects of the memorial have been finished and are awaiting installation, but it’s been difficult to book their contractor. “It’s not like they’re being paid big bucks to do this.”
The memorial also includes the silhouettes of a fireman and a police officer, the New York City skyline and a set of planes labeled to honor those lost on the two American Airlines and two United Airlines flights. All of the silhouettes were designed by a Fife High School art class in 2016.
The plans for the memorial were approved by the city; however, the city says the angel statue was not in the designs it approved.
Most of the work on the memorial was done by volunteers — including about half of the work done by the contractor, Patriot Construction. Chandler said in total the project raised about $140,000. About 60% of the funds came from private donors, the remainder was donated by the cities of Fife and Edgewood as well as the Puyallup Tribe. None were aware of Milton’s request to remove the angel silhouette until Chandler’s lawyer included them in his response to the city.
Fife City Manager Hyun Kim said because the memorial is on Milton property “the City of Fife does not have a say in what they do with their facility.” Fife provided the funds to the project based on a request by the non-profit 9/11 Memorial Committee to the Fife Lodging Tax Advisory Commission.
The city of Milton donated the land on which the memorial is built, and the city’s parks department will be responsible for its upkeep once it is complete.
Chandler argues that the angel is not a religious symbol because it isn’t identified as part of a particular religious group. In a letter to the city, Chandler’s attorney said labeling the angel silhouette as a religious symbol is a misinterpretation of the design.
In a letter to the city attorney on June 7, an attorney for the 9/11 memorial committee asked that the city reconsider its request to have the angel removed and allow the memorial to stand as it is. As of June 21, the city has not responded.
