Waukesha to make memorial for fallen parade victims permanent

 

WAUKESHA (CBS 58) -- A memorial in honor of the victims of the Waukesha parade will become a permanent fixture.

The Waukesha Parade Memorial Commission is actually pushing for more than one location, a main site, and then at least one other smaller memorial.

This is Grede Park at 800 Riverwalk Drive. It's just off Main Street where six people lost their lives at the Christmas parade after a driver sped into a crowd of spectators. Grede Park will be the location for the primary memorial.

"Twenty years from now people will say well what is that all about? How did this happen? Maybe it's 50 years from now, something that allows people to remember and not let it go away," said Jerry Couri, Waukesha Parade Memorial Commissioner.

Commissioners wondered why few people attended this meeting, hoping that word is getting out because they'd like the public's input as to what goes into the memorial.

"There's 14 of us here but we have our ideas, but the community may have a lot more ideas than we," said Couri.

For now, some suggestions are on the table.

"Can you imagine a trellis that spins up and spins like this with 71 blue in a ceramic fixture that leads into a permanent memorial where there's lights," said Sandra Feller, another Waukesha Parade Memorial Commissioner.

There is also a suggestion of bronze blocks laid in the ground leading from one memorial to the other off Main Street.

"Because I know a lot of my parents don't want to necessarily go on Main Street, at least not yet because of where everything happened. But they wanted to have a private location," said Feller.

The Commission plans to post specific questions to the public via social media soon.