The Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission (SHPMC) conducted its first meeting of the new year on the evening of January 10.

The group last met in September 2018 to formally present its recommendation for a permanent memorial design to the Board of Selectmen, which was unanimously approved.

Since then, the Town of Newtown has taken the reigns on negotiations with the selected design firm, SWA Group, pertaining to financing and other logistics.

First Selectmen Dan Rosenthal attended the SHPMC meeting to relay updates on the project to committee members and also offer information on the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and possible future referendum options pertaining to the project.

Despite the town originally communicating with SWA Principal and Landscape Architect Justin Winters, who was based in New York, for the project, Mr Rosenthal explained that Mr Winters has since left the organization. The selected memorial’s original designers, Daniel Affleck and Ben Waldo of SWA Group, based out of San Francisco, Calif., are still in communication to continue with the project.

Currently, the designers are creating three possible versions of their original design that will best accommodate the key elements of the initial vision as well as the town’s budget for the project.

The plan is to bring those new versions to the upcoming meeting for the commission to review and potentially select from.

“I’m not going to make a decision on this without sharing it with you,” Mr Rosenthal said. “That’s the whole point of keeping this group.”

The SHPMC also approved that the second Thursday of each month will be scheduled for its public meetings in 2019 (without one for February, at this time). The next SHPMC meeting is scheduled for March 14.

For more information about the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission, visit sandyhookpermanentmemorial.com.