The monument, expected to cost the city $83,500,


BUT none for homeless,none for schools, none for healthcare

San Leandro City Council approves funding for project


"For us, it's a personal loss because we're all ... like a family," police Chief Dale Attarian said. "We're a representative of the government, so when someone kills a police officer, I think it's kind of striking not only the individual but also striking at the fabric of the law in this country."

The City Council recently approved funds for a monument to honor the slain officers, one of which is Officer Nels "Dan" Niemi, who was gunned down July 25, 2005, while responding to a routine disturbance call on Doolittle Drive.

But it is not meant to be a memorial, cityofficials said.

"It's not only a monument honoring public safety officers killed in the line of duty," Attarian said. "It recognizes the day-to-day work of the firemen and policemen and public safety personnel out there every day."

Coincidentally, an Oakland courthouse is gearing up this week for the trial of Niemi's alleged assailant, Irving "Gotti" Ramirez. The San Leandro Police Officers Association had approached the City Council about creating the monument well before Niemi died.

When it is completed, city officials hope the project will strike a chord with the entire community. The monument, expected to cost the city $83,500,

will be designed by Sandy, Utah-based Monument Arts Inc., a collaborative of artists from throughout the country who specialize in public safety, patriotic and military monuments.

The design concept presented to council members last October incorporates historic photographs of the city's police and fire departments etched in granite, accompanied by three-dimensional sculptures of the "tools" public safety officers use, a poem dedicated to the agencies and a row of bronze badges honoring the three slain police officers.

In addition to Niemi, the monument will honor Officer Donald Spingola, who was hit by a ricocheting bullet during a shootout in September 1969, and Officer Fred Haller, who was found shot to death April 20, 1961, in his patrol car at a local park. That case is still unsolved.

But the monument's designers hope that when it is unveiled at Civic Center Plaza, possibly this summer, people will not just look at it and remember those officers. Daniel Bolz, the collaborative's director of marketing and sales, said it invites onlookers to touch it and interact with the agencies as well.

Similar to the feeling onlookers get when they visit and are able to touch the monument at Ground Zero, Bolz said, the goal of the monument here is to help foster the next generation of service men and women.

"When a person, particularly a child, comes up and touches the bronze, they have a kinetic interaction with not only the pure bronze itself but also with the message of the memorial," Bolz said in a telephone interview. "What we want is for the design to inspire the next generation of young people to not only respect these current people. ... We want to inspire the future generation to become policemen and firemen."

For more information, contact community relations representative Kathleen Ornelas at 577-3358 or kornelas [at] ci.san-leandro.ca.us.