NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9518
SPONSOR: Schimminger TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the highway law, in relation to desig-
nating a portion of the state highway system as the "Twin Cities Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Highway"
PURPOSE OF THE BILL: The purpose of this bill is to rename the Twin
Cities Memorial Highway to reflect the original intent of the 1970 law
naming the highway to honor military personnel from the Cities of Tona-
wanda and North Tonawanda who died in Vietnam.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
§ 1- Amends the Highway Law by adding a new § 344-c to designate a
portion of the State highway system as the "Twin Cities Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Highway."
§ 2- Requires that the Commissioner of Transportation shall provide for
the installation and maintenance of adequate signing of the State High-
way System and that the designation of this portion of the State Highway
System shall be ceremonial in nature and will not change the official
name of the highway.
§ 3- Effective date.
JUSTIFICATION: The purpose of this bill is to re-designate a portion
of the state highway system consisting of a portion of the arterial
highway in the adjacent Cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda in Erie
and Niagara Counties, respectively, as the "Twin Cities Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Highway."
Following the death of Pvt. Thomas J. Fox, the first North Tonawanda
resident to be killed in action in Vietnam, the late Senator Earl W.
Brydges was approached by a North Tonawanda resident to name the new
Young-Division Arterial after Pvt. Fox. The Tonawanda Common Council
noted that one of its native sons, Pfc. Ronald Sadler, had also paid the
ultimate price in Vietnam and was deserving of a public honor. A joint
Highway Committee was named with each city appointing three members to
review the matter. According to newspaper accounts, committee members
agreed that it would be "more appropriate to designate the highway in
memory of all Twin Cities Vietnamese war dead instead of an individual."
The committee's suggested name for the arterial was "The Twin Cities
Memorial Highway" and it was requested that the Department of Transpor-
tation install plaques with the names of the fallen on both ends of the
highway's bridge spanning the Erie Canal, which is the boundary between
the two cities. Legislation was enacted with the suggested name, Twin
Cities Memorial Highway (Chapter 650 of the Laws of 1970). With the
permission of NYSDOT, stone memorials, paid for by each city, were
placed at the Tonawanda and North Tonawanda entrance/exit ramps for the
Twin Cities Memorial Highway at each end of the Erie Canal bridge.
Over the years, it became obvious that the memorials were isolated and
not the tribute to the fallen that was originally envisioned. North
Tonawanda was the first community to relocate its Vietnam memorial to
Brauer Park near the city's World War I and II memorials. Later, the
City of Tonawanda relocated its memorial to a spot along the Niagara
River near City Hall and close to other veteran memorials.
With the Vietnam memorials relocated, there is no indication that the
Twin Cities Memorial Highway was dedicated to those who served and died
in Vietnam. Historical documents and newspaper accounts of the time
clearly indicate that the expressway and the monuments were intertwined
and "dedicated to the memory of those who made the greatest sacrifice in
Vietnam." While the monuments still honor those who died in Vietnam,
they stand far removed and unrelated to the expressway that was dedi-
cated to the memory of those honored by the monuments.
With the beginning of the national Vietnam War Commemoration now in
progress, it would be appropriate to formally re-designate the highway
to truly honor the men from the Twin Cities who never returned from
Vietnam by renaming the expressway the Twin Cities Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Highway.
Historical Note - The newspaper accounts of the time do not mention why
the words "Vietnam Veteran" were never included in the formal name of
the highway even though the intent to honor the fallen in Vietnam was
clear. We can only surmise that the words were intentionally left out
because of the unpopularity of the war and the effect it would have on
passing the bill (S.9484) that named the highway. We must remember that
in the late sixties and seventies, the nation was extremely polarized
over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Across the nation there were
anti-draft protests, bombings and peaceful demonstrations that turned
violent on city streets and on university campuses.
To put things in perspective, at the time the name of the highway was
being debated by the Tonawanda and North Tonawanda Highway Committee,
news stories of the day reported that the Army charged 14 officers with
suppressing information related to the My Lai massacre and that a bomb
constructed by members of the Weathermen and meant to be planted at a
military dance in New Jersey exploded killing three members of the
organization. When the bill naming the highway passed both houses of the
Legislature and was signed into law as Chapter 650 on May 8, 1970, it
was just days after U.S. forces crossed into Cambodia, threatening to
widen the war, and four students at Kent State University were killed
and nine were wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen at a protest against
the incursion into Cambodia. And when the Tonawanda News ran a story
announcing that the Twin Cities Memorial Highway would be open on Labor
Day, 1971, it was placed next to a United Press International story with
the headline "The Death Toll in Vietnam War is Now 50,000."
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: Minimal.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately.
