Three members of the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission (SHPMC) joined First Selectmen Dan Rosenthal for the group’s monthly town meeting at the Municipal Center on the evening of August 8.

With limited attendance, the commission could not make a formal vote during the night’s discussion.

After the SHPMC’s last meeting in May, Mr Rosenthal has been in communication with SWA Group, the design firm selected to create the Sandy Hook permanent memorial, about working with fundraising firms.

Last year, the commission selected designers Daniel Affleck and Ben Waldo’s original memorial project that costs approximately $11 million.

With the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) allotting the project only $4 million, SWA Group was asked to create three options at lower price points to accommodate the budget. In doing so, they made a $5 million, $4 million, and $3.3 million version of the design.

The SHPMC decided at the time that they did not wish to move forward with any of the three proposed budgeted designs, and some members expressed interest in seeking outside funding for the original project to compensate the margin of money not accounted for.

Mr Rosenthal says he is currently in the beginning stages of communicating with the second fundraising firm that SWA Group recommended they work with, which is seeming to be more promising than the first firm they pursued.

He reminded the SHPMC members that fundraising could significantly push back the time of completing the project. However, if they were to select one of the proposed scaled down versions of the design, they could get the project on the referendum for April 2020.

SHPMC member Sarah Middeleer, who has been a proponent of the fundraising route, said, “I’m hopeful.”

The next Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 12, at 7 pm, in the Municipal Center’s Council Chambers. To contact the commission, e-mail sandyhookpermanentmemorial@gmail.com.