City signs agreement for memorial park at site of building collapse

A memorial park to honor those killed and injured in the 2013 building collapse is slated to break ground this Spring.

Six people were killed on June 5, 2013 when a building under demolition fell on the Salvation Army Thrift Store at 22nd and Market Streets.

The city signed a "License and Donation" agreement Tuesday which allows the volunteer committee fundraising for the park to set a groundbreaking date. The hope is the park will be completed by the third anniversary of the tragedy, June 5, 2016.

As part of the agreement the City will transfer $700,000 in capital funding to the park construction fund.

In addition to the city's commitment, $600,000 has been raised in private pledges and about $445,000 has been donated in materials and services from companies and building trade labor unions.

"The time has come to build this lasting memorial to the six lives lost at the site two and a half years ago," said Mayor Michael A. Nutter in a release.

City Treasurer Nancy Winkler, whose 24-year-old daughter Anne Bryan was killed while visiting the store, commended the mayor and the community for support of the project in the news release.

"He brought to bear the resources of the Administration necessary to support the design and the contracting and he committed a substantial amount of his discretionary capital dollars to this project," Winkler said of Nutter. "As we have said from the start, this tragedy was avoidable and the park's emphasis will be placing human life above development. The mayor and his team have been working with us all along the way to convey that message and so it is fitting that the agreement is signed before he leaves office."

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