Ashland memorial to honor victims of 9-11

 ASHLAND, Maine — Those wishing to pay homage to the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 won’t have to travel to New York, D.C. or Pennsylvania if all goes as planned for a memorial being spearheaded by the Ashland Fire Department.
The department now has in its possession a piece of steel from one of the Twin Towers that fell as a result of a terrorist attack in 2001.
“We picked the piece up last October from the Freeport Fire Department. We found it through the Masons in Freeport who’d obtained a portion of steel from one of the buildings,” said Chief Don Bouley, AFD.
Bouley said Freeport officials used a portion for their own memorial, giving the remainder to the AFD.
“They cut two pieces and stood them up to look like the Twin Towers. This is the remaining piece. We’re hoping  a similar memorial, putting benches with it to give people a place to come and remember and pay their respects,” Bouley said.
Bouley said he first learned of the Freeport project when he attended the state firefighters’ convention in Ellsworth around Sept. 11 last year.
“I found out there was a piece of steel left over from their project and brought it up to Ralph (Dwyer, Ashland town manager). He thought it was a great idea to acquire it for the town to create our own memorial,” said Bouley.
The chief said plans are to create a site on municipal property to place the steel so everyone can have access to it.
“We’d like to place it in the corner of the municipal property here at the firehouse/town office. We want to set it up at an angle so you can see the whole face of it. This will honor the many EMS, firefighters and civic people who lost their lives or who responded to this tragedy,” he said.
The steel weighs about 3,600 pounds. Plans are to incorporate the memorial into the Firemen’s Muster, taking place later this year in Van Buren.
“We’d like to set the steel on a trailer to travel to the muster this year,” he said. “We’d like to set up somewhere in the middle of the event, with the flag showing all the names of those who passed on 9-11.”
Bouley said in the meantime, fundraisers will take place to raise the money to complete the project, which he estimates will cost $5,000 to $8,000.
“May 17 at the Ashland VFW will be our first fund-raising event. We want to tie in with the Ashland Days Committee,” said Bouley.
Bouley is hoping other fire departments will get onboard to help raise funds for the memorial.
“I contacted Darren Woods (Aroostook EMA director) and he’s contacting all County fire departments asking them to donate,” said Bouley.
He said it’s uncertain which tower the piece came from but efforts are being made to find out.
“We’re working with the Masons to try to find out exactly which building our piece of steel is from,” Bouley said.
If all goes as planned, Bouley said this should be a good project.
“The thing is, we don’t want people to forget. Traveling to New York, D.C. or Pennsylvania isn’t an option for many folks. This will provide a more accessible location for the people of Aroostook and Maine to visit and pay their respects,” said Bouley.
A fund-raising account has been setup at Katahdin Trust. Donations can also be mailed to: Ashland Fire Department, PO Box 910, Ashland, ME 04732.
“Make checks out to ‘9-11 Memorial’ in care of Don Bouley. Or donations can be made directly to our account at any Katahdin branch,” said Bouley.