Story Created:
Jan 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM PST
Story Updated:
Jan 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM PST
WHITTIER — A private group plans to raise $100,000 to erect a Police Memorial in front of the new police station that is being built west of City Hall at Penn Street and Washington Avenue. The station is expected to be completed this summer.
The City Council Jan. 12 voted unanimously to accept the proposed gift from the Whittier Police Memorial Committee, an affiliate of the Whittier Community Foundation.
Fran Shields, director of community services and a member of the Memorial Committee, said the committee Dec. 18 selected a bronze artwork by Alanna Roth, entitled “The Final Salute,” from nine entries submitted.
It will depict a Whittier police officer in uniform standing on a black granite hexagon base, 54 feet wide and two feet high, saluting his fallen comrades.
His left hand falls on the shoulder of a child statue representing children of fallen officers. The child is wearing his father’s uniform hat and clutching a folded American flag, Shields said.
The memorial will honor the two Whittier officers who have been killed in the line of duty. Their names, images and stories of how they died will be engraved on panels on both sides of the saluting officer.
To be honored are Officer John Pierce, killed as a result of an undercover investigation in 1977; and Officer Mike Lange, who died of gunshot wounds in 1979.
Roth is a well-known public artist with projects throughout the United States. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Cal State Northridge and attended the International School of Art in Umbria, Italy, Shields said.
The Whittier Community Foundation is a private, nonprofit group organized in 2006 to support community activities in the city.
Last year the foundation purchased a miniature horse for the zoo at Parnell Park.
Doug Lopez chairs the foundation’s Police Memorial Committee. Other members are Police Chief David Singer and Capt. Aviv Bar, retired police officers Barry Chartier and Mike Willis. and Officers Paul Segura Jr. and Carlos Arroyo representing the Whittier Police Officers Association.
Rounding out the Memorial Committee are foundation members Mike Abbate, Carol Crosby, Chris George, Bennie Watje and Shields and community service staffer Marlene Martel.
In other action Jan,. 12, the council approved a request from the Social Services Commission, a city-appointed group, to allow representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau to use the main lobbies of four city buildings free of charge between March 19 and April 19.
Census staffers will be in the four locations during regular business hours to encourage and help residents fill out census forms and to provide whatever services may be needed, said Assistant City Manager Nancy Mendez.
The sites are the Whittier Community Center, 7630 Washington Ave., the Uptown Senior Center, 13225 Walnut St.; the Central Library, 7344 S. Washington Ave.; and the Transportation Depot, 7333 Greenleaf Ave.
In a written report to council, Mendez noted that the Social Services Commission is acting as a complete count committee to help the Census Bureau make an accurate count of residents. Federal and state aid to the city will be based on those population numbers, she said.
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