Local 83 and SMACNA Capital District partnered on a Memorial Park to honor Americans who have paid the ultimate price for their country The Town of Malta in New York state wanted to honor those who have served and paid the ultimate price for America. In recognition, they built a Veteran’s Memorial at the entrance of the town hall to include a piece of the steel from the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11. In June, visitors paid respects at the expansion of that project to include a memorial brick walkway with benches and a future fountain for veterans, service members, and their families to enjoy. Visitors included a gathering of community members, government officials, and veterans, and the dedicated tradespeople who volunteered their time to contribute to this place of recognition and remembrance. Local 83 Organizer Phil Stenglein was approached in March by Renee Farley, chairperson of the the Malta Veterans Appreciation Program. She wanted to dedicate the Town Veterans Park to a decorated Marine captain and Vietnam veteran, who is also MVAP’s founder and who has been a champion of veteran causes for his entire post-war career and life. “He was dying of cancer, and they wanted to do this before he passed away,” Stenglein says. “First, Renee had to get permission from the town to do this, and there was a lot of work to do in the park ahead of the tight deadline.”
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Local 83’s part was constructing an entrance way to the park. Renee asked Stenglein to coordinate with the trades and he agreed, overseeing the entire project with three other trades and four contractors, which included signatory sheet metal workers, ironworkers, painters, and masons/bricklayers.
“I was given a rough sketch, a due date of June 6, and some old wrought iron fencing from the old town cemetery, which dated back to just after the Civil War,” Stenglein says. “The fencing was stacked up about 100 feet behind a resident’s house underneath a grove of pine trees. We had to trudge through over a foot of snow to look at it. Let me tell you, it was in rough shape. I picked out some sections of fence and the two or three finials or posts on the end, though no two pieces were the same or fully intact.”
A powder coating contractor completed the initial sandblasting on the fencing, the ironworkers completed building and welding the entire gateway at their union hall and training center, and a painting contractor sandblasted and painted the gateway. At the same time, masons and bricklayers were building the brick pillars to which the gateway was to be mounted. All parties had to coordinate the dimensions and timing, including time after it was mounted to pour the caps on the pillars. Stenglein approached Josh Monahan, vice president with Monahan Metals, to complete the wording on the entrance way
© Can Stock Photo / cammep
By / Jessica Kirby
© Can Stock Photo / stockgiu
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