EDITOR:

I was pleasantly surprised to see the article in the newspaper concerning the recent ground breaking for the Monument to Labor project located at the Municipal Dock Park.

As a means of background, the project was proposed by city staff in the Escanaba Capital Improvement plan back in 2013 with public input from the various community labor organizations, and the Escanaba Planning Commission and the Escanaba City Council and became part of the Sesquicentennial planning effort.

The purpose of the monument was to recognize and memorialize the history and significance that labor had in building and advancing the community.

With respect to the reliefs, in the early 1990s in the course of demolishing the old Department of Public Works structure located on North 8th Street, four historical labor reliefs were salvaged for inclusion into a future public art project . In my opinion those reliefs are a perfect fit for the monument to labor and deserve to be back in public view.

Cudo’s to all those that continued to move this project forward. It is a worthy effort and a fitting recognition to all those that built Escanaba.

James V. O’Toole

Escanaba City Manager, Retired