CLFD will break ground for 9/11 memorial today

    This morning (Wednesday, July 11) a long awaited memorial project is scheduled to break ground at 8 a.m.
    The Clear Lake Fire Department has announced it will begin work on the public display of an artifact salvaged from the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001.   A piece of steel from the World Trade Center was given to the CLFD and brought to North Iowa May 19, 2011.

    “We embrace the community for all of the tremendous support we have received in this endeavor” said CLFD Public Information Officer Billy Krefft.  “It all started Sept. 11, 2009 with a request for an artifact from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  It was only after a year and a half of diligence and follow up, support by the Foundation of Victims of 9/11 Families, assistance from Senator Grassley, help from our brothers at the FDNY, the NYPD, and local businesses like Pritchard Family Auto Stores, that we were able to retrieve a 10-foot long and 1,100 pound steel beam from the North Tower of the World Trade Center and bring it back to Clear Lake. We have come together to honor what the steel represents to each of us personally, this artifact of horror, this amazing piece of history, is to be made into something positive to share with everyone.”
    The 9/11 steel memorial will be placed at the corner of North 8th Street and 2nd Avenue North.  Along the main gateway into downtown Clear Lake, in front of the new fire station, the well-planned design invites those passing to stop and recollect.
    “A proud tribute, the rough, bent, and heavy steel will jut into the sky above,” explained Krefft.  “Water will cascade under it and trickle over a granite base surrounded by benches to rest and ponder.”
    Completion is expected by early August and a formal unveiling will be announced at a later date.