COURIER L 16 IFE, JAN. 11–17, 2019 DT
Forward march at
WWII monument
City starting repairs to memorial a
year late due to accounting error
BY JULIANNE CUBA
The city this spring will break ground
on renovations to a long-shuttered
World War II memorial Downtown —
one year later than initially planned,
due to an accounting error that left
offi cials scrambling to come up with
enough cash to complete the project.
In March 2017 , news broke that the
Department of Parks and Recreation
collected the $4 million it needed to
make the shrine inside Cadman Plaza
Park handicap accessible, and that the
memorial — which is normally open
to the public for special programming
and events — would be brought up to
code within 18 months.
But that pot of money — a mix of
taxpayer dollars allocated by Borough
President Adams and Downtown
Councilman Stephen Levin, and
payments that the United States General
Services Administration made to
the Parks Department in order to use
other city land as a temporary parking
lot — turned out to be $1-million
short, according to a Parks spokeswoman,
who said the agency expected
to receive some $2 million in payments
from the Feds, but only got half that.
“Our records indicated that there
was approximately $2 million available
from the United States General
Services Administration, but upon
looking into it further we discovered
there was only about $1 million,” the
spokeswoman said.
Agency leaders then tapped the
beep and Mayor DeBlasio for the extra
green they needed to make the memorial
accessible to all by installing
ramps and an elevator from the ground
fl oor to its basement bathrooms, according
File photo by Cate Dingley
NOT OPEN YET: The Cadman Plaza Park
monument will still only be open to the
public by appointment or for special events,
such as this 2015 Memorial Day ceremony,
following the renovations.
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And now, Parks Department leaders
claim they have all the money they
need to make over the shrine, whose
interior features the names of more
than 11,500 Brooklynites who died in
WWII, and will still only be open to the
public for special events or by appointment
following the renovations.
“The most important thing here
is that the project is fully funded,
on track, and moving forward,” the
agency spokeswoman said.
But some veterans who served in
the war and lived to tell about it fear
they may never get to see the spruced
up memorial, and the names of their
fallen friends within it, due to the
years of delays.
“Before we kick the bucket, my
brother and I want this thing to get
done so people can go visit,” said Marine
Parker Jack Vanasco, 91, a WWII
vet who fought alongside his now
93-year-old brother, Roy Vanasco . “A
lot of guys we grew up with, played ball
together with, are on that wall.”