Agreement regarding Katyń Memorial reached with Jersey City mayor
The Katyń Memorial in Jersey City will remain at the embankment of the Hudson River. It will be moved 60 metres from the place where it is now, Polish Consul general in New York Maciej Golubiewski wrote on Twitter on Friday.
"We reached a deal with JC Mayor @StevenFulop on the monument," Golubiewski wrote, adding that the memorial will remain on the embankment 60 metres from the place where it stands now. "Let me express my thanks to Eryk Lubaczewski," he added.
"I am very happy that we reached this agreement," Golubiewski told a Polish public TV broadcaster, and stressed the role played by Lubaczewski, the executive director of the Polish Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
Poland's Ambassador to the US, Piotr Wilczek, also expressed his satisfaction over the reached agreement.
"Many thanks to @MGolubiewskiPL for his hard work. And many thanks to thousands of Polish Americans and friends of Poland for their support," the Polish diplomat wrote on Twitter.
The controversy surrounding the Katyń Memorial erupted last week when the city's mayor, Steven Fulop, announced plans to create a park where the Katyń Victims Memorial now stands, and the latter would be relocated. He did not consult the project with the Polish diaspora in the states of New Jersey and New York, and they protested, as did Warsaw.
On Tuesday, at the diaspora's request, a local court ordered that the monument remain in place at least until May 29.
Exchange Place, where the memorial is located now, offers a spectacular view of lower Manhattan across the Hudson River. It is an attractive location for real estate developers who want to create a USD 90 million park there. (PAP)
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