By Bill Gemmill
A group of community members and public officials met Sept. 13 to discuss the addition of a proposed AIDS memorial for the redeveloped Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix.
The proposed memorial would be located on city land in the park, but the community would have to raise money to build it and then provide for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the memorial.
The exact location in the park was one of many discussion items; the placeholder on the approved plans locates the memorial just north of First Street in the proposed “canyon” area (just southeast of the library on the above plan).
The city has approved the master plan for the park and developers estimate the total cost of the new master plan to be about $118 million. The AIDS memorial cost is not included in that estimate since those costs will come from the private sector. The developers are now working with the city to rebuild the park in phases, the next step of which is a detailed study for the first phase.
The next meeting for the proposed AIDS Memorial (another point of discussion: should it be called a “memorial”) will be open to public and will be listed in our Community Calendar.
(Top photo by Ron Passarelli.)