Within the run-up to the vote, some nonetheless expressed doubt that voters would approve the memorial.
“One of many first questions that we tackled was, ought to there even be a memorial?” the fee chairman, Daniel Krauss, mentioned in a Fb Dwell discussion board sponsored by the city’s newspaper. The fee reviewed different memorials to different tragedies, discovering no scarcity of case research.
The group has “labored very tirelessly for seven years now,” Mr. Krauss mentioned. “We’ve had disagreements, we’ve had distinction of opinions, however on the finish of the day all of us stand behind the undertaking, and imagine in it.”
The ultimate design, at $3.7 million, “does what we needed to do on the very starting of the undertaking,” he mentioned, “which was to recollect and honor those that had been misplaced at Sandy Hook college.”
The Wheelers, whose basis, Ben’s Lighthouse, presents applications, together with a free summer season camp, to assist youngsters and youngsters develop empathy, self-awareness and social connection, praised the fee’s efforts to incorporate victims’ households and the individuals affected by the bloodbath in its plans.
“They had been fully clear with everybody, actually with us. Each time there was a design resolution to be thought of, they’d get everyone collectively and get us all in a room and tell us,” Mr. Wheeler mentioned. “At this juncture, at any fee, it appears like an instance of how to do that the proper method.”
The Newtown Bee newspaper made a remaining push for the undertaking in an editorial per week earlier than the vote.
“Residents want little reminder of that tragic day, however a tangible reminder to those that don’t name Newtown residence of how tragedy adjustments lives and adjustments communities gives sufficient cause to vote sure,” the column learn.
Scarlett Lewis’s son Jesse Lewis died whereas encouraging his Sandy Hook classmates to run from the gunman. Over dinner on the Pink Rooster Pub in Newtown after voting sure on the memorial Tuesday, she recalled an early public discussion board concerning the undertaking.
