Teaneck advances development of two new monuments for municipal property
TEANECK — Two monuments were given the go-ahead for separate development on Township Hall's Volcker Municipal Green at Tuesday's Township Council session.
Two resolutions authorized the Holocaust Committee and the Enslaved African Memorial Committee to proceed separately with private efforts to raise money for the construction and installation of the monuments on municipal property.
An October 2020 Memorandum of Agreement that expired in October committed the two committees to work together toward the construction of "two proposed memorial/educational sites" previously approved by the Township Council in 2014.
The projects have already received an estimated $350,000 in state funding, which has gone for design, consulting, brochures and marketing.
However, Holocaust Committee co-chair Steve Fox said they have "not been successful raising that kind of money" for construction.
"We can get money for educational programs, but foundations are not interested in money for brick-and-mortar projects," Fox said. "There are individuals who would only give to one or the other."
In consequence, Fox said, a $48,000 grant from the state went to the Teaneck Library for educational video and virtual reality equipment that is "now sitting in boxes" because "the library reneged on doing this."
"We saw when it was a larger number we were not getting the money we needed," Fox said. "We reduced the project about a third of what it was."
Enslaved African Memorial Committee Executive Director Patricia Butler said preliminary grants from the State Historical Commission "are only for cultural and educational programs."
"That's a good thing, but we can't use them for any capital campaign," Butler said. "Of $136,000, $63,000 went to Rodney Leon Architects. The second big chunk of $33,000 went to Bridge Consulting Group, who was successful in raising large sums of money to build the Martin Luther King statue in Washington D.C. They helped us with our website, and made important introductions for us."
Now, Butler said, the group is focused on the capital campaign.
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"We went into this with passion and naivete," Butler said. "Monuments are usually built by private donors or vested groups like Daughters of the American Revolution. But there's no track record for us to capture. These people have been forgotten, invisible, erased from history."
Sixteen of the comments made about the memorials during a two-hour Good and Welfare session suggested residents thought the projects should remain united, consider one joint monument honoring both groups, or even divert grants to other causes such as "better public transportation."
Deputy Mayor Danielle Gee suggested the resolutions should be tabled for further study. But Councilman Mark Schwartz argued they represented not just the people in the room but "all 41,000 residents," and led a 5-2 vote to approve the resolutions as submitted so the groups can carry on their goals separately.
The projects will eventually be installed on the 3-acre lawn at the Teaneck Municipal Building, 818 Teaneck Road. For more information on the Holocaust Memorial visit teaneckyomhashoa.org. For more information on the Enslaved African Memorial visit eamcnj.org.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Teaneck NJ OKs development of new monuments for public land
