Hate crime memorial plan debated (original) (raw)

By Dawn Gagnon

BANGOR - Members of the city's commission on cultural development and a group seeking to memorialize the victim of an infamous hate crime are nearing agreement.

The Charles O. Howard Memorial Foundation is seeking to erect a memorial to Howard, a 23-year-old gay man who drowned 22 years ago last month after three teenagers threw him off the State Street bridge.

While the commission and foundation earlier hammered out mutually agreed upon text for the monument, reaching agreement on the shape and size of the monument itself has proven more of a challenge.

Plans to place a monument in Howard's memory arose during a memorial walk to the bridge two years ago, when participants asked why there was nothing to mark the spot of Howard's death, which made national headlines.

Over the months since then the design for the Howard memorial has evolved from a metal arch over the stream, to a stone torch, to a pedestal-style monument that its designer, Tom Hudgins of Bradford, last year described as minimalist.

Committee members, however, wanted something more engaging, both in terms of design and text. Some wanted the focus to be on Bangor's commitment to intolerance of bigotry and hatred, rather than on the way in which Howard died.

The amount of time it has taken to finalize plans has proven frustrating to foundation members, an issue that commission Chairman John Rohman, a former city councilor, addressed Friday.

"We really had a process here that we thought was pretty good," Rohman said, though he acknowledged it has taken longer than many had hoped.

"This group really does want to move ahead with this process ... because we really do believe this is something that we need in the community," he said.

Rohman said the commission wanted the foundation to come up with something more aesthetic. "Even if you couldn't read English, you'd know something was going on."

On Friday, Hudgins and Susan Davies, the foundation's co-chairwoman, presented the latest design concept, a granite slab topped by a stone vase that would be filled with flowers in the warm months, and possibly some other decorative material in the colder months.

The group plans to use a pillar it had made for an earlier version of the monument as the seat for a stone bench on which visitors to the site could sit quietly and reflect, Davies noted.

The latest concept received the tentative green light from commissioners who attended Friday's session.

"I like where you guys are going," commission member Steve Ribble, a landscape architect, said.

Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick, who also serves on the commission, also liked the concept. While he thought it needed more work, the result will be "a product of many brains." He asked the foundation to think of ways they could make the memorial space distinctive so the monument and bench wouldn't look like "two things plopped there."

Rohman asked foundation representatives to develop a site plan showing the layout of the monument and the bench before the next meeting, which might be held at the memorial site.

"I think you're getting a lot of positive feedback on the concept," he said.

Part of the commission's mission is to help groups and individuals seeking to donate artworks to the city through the approval process, from the concept phase through final design.

The commission then will make a recommendation to the City Council, which has the final say.