9/11 Memorial Park project is brought back to life with new funding

AUSTINTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Recently, a project to expand the Mahoning Valley 9/11 Memorial Park in Austintown hit a snag but new funding is on the way to bring the project back to life.

Patriotism is a point of pride in Austintown.

“Austintown has always been known as a veteran’s town,” said Mahoning Valley 9/11 Memorial Co-Chairman Jim Davis. “We’re one of the few that have every piece, whether it’s the dirt from Shaksville, a piece of the Pentagon or parts of the Twin Towers.”

Pat Conley was the architect behind the park.

“Pat was so hardcore. Everything he did, he did it his way and to the point,” said park caretaker Samuel Swoger.

Swoger is now one of its many caretakers entrusted with making sure nobody forgets what happened on 9/11.

“You never want to forget about what happened, especially when something happened on your soil,” Swoger said.

In the two decades since the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, the memorial has taken root, honoring police and firefighters who lost their lives and paying tribute to victims who never made it home after that Tuesday morning.

“To just hit buildings where the average citizen is just going to work — and just wants to go home to his or her family — and it didn’t happen that day. That’s the saddest part,” said Swoger.

Recent plans to expand the memorial with a small museum had hit a snag. Fundraising stalled when volunteers had raised just $11,000 of its $35,000 goal.

“Budgets are so tight right now, so to ask people to donate money — we were slow in our donation collections,” Swoger said.

But the project got new life last week when Governor Mike DeWine signed his Capital Improvement budget, including $50,000 earmarked for the 9/11 memorial.

“There have also been people who have been impacted by this that may have had a relative or a friend, and they’re brought us artifacts or information or pictures of those individuals who were affected that day — and we want to display those. We want to be able to show that to let their memory live on,” said Davis.

It ensures the memorial’s mission of remembrance also includes an element of education.

“The kids that are in school nowadays, they were not alive during 9/11, so the only way that you can never forget what happened that day is to continue to educate,” Davis said.

“I think that’s what resonates with people. We’re going to pull up our bootstraps. We’re going to fight back. that’s what America did on that day,” he said.

The funding the 9/11 memorial has received is for fiscal year 2025-26.

They’re hoping to have the project completed in the next one to two years.

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